POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES' EDELMAN-BUNDY CONNECTION
In a 1998 book that was subsidized by the MacArthur Foundation,
the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation,
entitled THE COLOR OF TRUTH: MC GEORGE BUNDY AND WILLIAM BUNDY:
BROTHERS IN ARMS, a contributing editor of Katrina vanden Heuvel's
NATION magazine, Kai Bird, recalled that in June 1968, then-Ford
Foundation President McGeorge "Bundy arranged fellowships totaling
$131,000 for eight members of" the mysteriously-slain Robert F.
"Kennedy's campaign staff." Bird also noted that recipients "included
Frank Mankiewicz ($15,000 for a study of the Peace Corps in Latin
America), Adam Walinsky ($22,200 for a study of community action
programs) and Peter Edelman ($19,090 for a study of community
development programs around the world)."
In recent years Peter Edelman has been sitting on the board
of a foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, which subsidizes
the alternative media work of Chip Berlet's Political Research
Associates [PRA] group. In 2002, for instance, Peter Edelman's
Public Welfare Foundation gave a $50,000 grant to Political Research
Associates to provide "general support for research center that
collects and disseminates information on extremist groups and
provides information and training to local, state, and national
organizations working to counter extremist activity." PRA's form
990 also indicates at least $90,000 in additional grant money
was given to Political Research Associates by Peter Edelman's
Public Welfare Foundation between 1993 and 1996; and in 1999,
another grant of $50,000 was given to the Political Research Associates
group by the Public Welfare Foundation.
Prior to working as a staffperson for RFK and then receiving
his Ford Foundation fellowship from former National Security Affairs
advisor Bundy, Public Welfare Foundation board member Edelman
worked as a law clerk to a Supreme Court Justice named Arthur
Goldberg. According to the 1982 book Rooted In Secrecy: The Clandestine
Element in Australian Politics by Joan Coxsedge: "Arthur Goldberg,
the General Counsel of the CIO engineered the expulsion of the
Left from this organization...After the left-wing purge of the
CIO, Goldberg worked to achieve union with the conservative American
Federation of Labor [AFL] headed by rabid anti-communist and long-time
CIA stooge, George Meany, and what was left of the CIO." Public
Welfare Foundation board member Edelman is also both the political
godfather/rabbi of U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton and a former
Clinton Administration official. According to the Center for Responsive
Politics' web site, Public Welfare Foundation board member Peter
Edelman also gave two campaign contributions, totalling $1,500,
to Hillary Rodham-Clinton's campaign on September 26, 2000 and
another $1,000 campaign contribution to SenatorRodham-Clinton's
campaign on November 9, 2000. Marian Edelman of the Children's
Defense Fund NGO also gave a $1,000 campaign contribution to Hillary
Rodham-Clinton on November 9, 2000.
In the late 1990s, the Massachusetts-based Political Research
Associates [PRA] was also given a $120,000 grant by the San Francisco
Foundation. The board of trustees and/or the investment committee
of the San Francisco Foundation has included the following members
of the Bay Area Establishment in recent years: 1. Levi Strauss
Foundation Board Member Peter Haas Jr.; 2. Advent Software Inc.
Chair and U. of California-Berkeley Foundation board member Stephanie
Marco; 3. Equidex Inc. Chair and former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg
James Hormel; 4. Oakland Private Industry Council CEO Gay Plair
Cobb; 5. Brookings Institute Trustee Emeritus and U. of California-Berkeley
Foundation board member F. Warren Hellman; 6. Stanford University
Trustee Leslie Hume; 7. Pacific Gas & Electric [PG&E] Chief Finance
Officer Kent Hardy; 8. Seneca Capital Management Founder Gail
Seneca; and 9. Foundation for Chinese Democracy Chair/President
Rolland C. Lowe. In addition, the San Francisco Foundation presently
controls over $695 million in assets and takes in about $15 million
a year in investment income from its corporate stock portfolio.
Contributions exceeding $5,000 were also made to Political Research
Associates by the following other individuals or foundations between
1993 and 1996: William & Robie Harris ($32,000); Jean Hardisty
($125,588), Thomas P. Jalkut ($85,000), Hannah Kranzberg ($5,000),
Sister Fund ($20,000), CS Fund ($30,000); Funding Exchange ($12,000);
Haymarket Peoples Fund ($17,000); Ms. Foundation for Women ($15,000);
Nathan Cummings Foundation ($80,000); the Stresand Foundation
($7,500); Threshold Foundation ($27,825); Tides Foundation ($69,260);
Unitarian Universalist Veatch ($50,000; Sylvia Goodman ($11,000);
Michael Kieschnick ($29,279); Albert A. List Foundation ($75,000);
US Trust ($5,032); The New Land Foundation ($5,000); and PRRAC
($10,000). In 1999, additional contributions exceeding $5,000
were made to Political Research Associates by the following individuals
and foundations: Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program ($25,000);
The Prentice Foundation ($5,000); Stephen & Diana Goldberg Foundation
($10,000); Tides Foundation ($57,550); Albert A. List Foundation
($25,000); Carol Bernstein ($5,000); Irving Harris Foundation
($25,000); Nathan Cummings Foundation ($55,000); Thomas Jalkut
($15,000); Nancy Meier ($15,025);; Warsh-Mott Legacy ($20,000);
Chambers Family Fund ($25,000); and the Ms. Foundation For Women
($15,000).
At least $11,000 in politically partisan campaign contributions
have also been made by a Jean Hardisty of Political Research Associates
since 1992, according to the Center for Responsive Politics web
site. On November 15, 1999, for instance Ms. Hardisty gave a $1,000
campaign contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
And on September 12, 2000, Ms. Hardisty gave a $1,000 campaign
contribution to KidPAC.
In the acknowledgment section of the 1995 Eyes Right! book which
Chip Berlet edited, the Establishment Foundation-sponsored Political
Research Asociates executive wrote: "An extra tip of the hat to
Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive for his special assistance."
Coincidentally, in recent months Berlet joined PROGRESSIVE magazine
editor Rothschild in attempting to smear and marginalize 9/11
conspiracy journalists and researchers, while apparently failing
to do much political research into possible links between the
Ford Foundation, the Trilateral Commission, the Carlyle Group
and/or the Bush White House.
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