Koch Brothers Promote Senator Rand Paul for President in 2016
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Special 48-page Special Report
Koch Brothers Promote Senator
Rand Paul for President in 2016
Koch-sponsored libertarianism means open borders, legal dope and prostitution,
abortion and gay rights, extreme pornography, an American military withdrawal
from the rest of the world, and “free trade” with Russia and China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin benefit from Koch Industries.
Koch Industries claims in a new patriotic “We Are Koch” advertising campaign that it is
based on “American values and skill” and from the “heartland” of America. So why is the
company building up the military power of Russia and China?
Ad Age reports that, “Koch Industries, the energy and packaged-goods giant, has
introduced its first national TV ad campaign amid increasing attacks on its namesake
founders, the billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch…The campaign,
which promotes the company's American heritage and job creation without referencing
the Koch brothers themselves, is part of a larger recruiting effort…” The narrator says,
“We started in the Heartland and expanded to nearly every state. Today that means
more than 60,000 American jobs.” In fact, the Koch website notes, “Koch companies
have a presence in about 60 countries and employ more than 100,000 people
worldwide, with about 60,000 of those in the United States.” So 40,000 are abroad,
some in Russia and China.
America’s Survival, Inc. 443-964-8208 www.usasurvival.org
1
Yes, Koch Industries makes food, clothing, shelter, transportation, hygiene supplies and
technologies. But it also builds the Russian and Chinese war machines.
In his April 2, 2014, Wall Street Journal op-ed, “I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society,”
he makes no mention of his company’s dealings with Russia or China.
Here are some “Koch Facts” –
Koch Chemical Technology Group, Koch Supply & Trading, and the Koch-
owned Molex Company trade with Russia, supplying the Russian oil industry.
Koch-owned Molex has a branch in China that supplies the giant Chinese
telecommunications firm, Huawei, which came under investigation by the House
Intelligence Committee for its ties to the Chinese government, Peoples
Liberation Army, and Chinese intelligence service.
NSA defector Edward Snowden’s media mouthpiece, Glenn Greenwald, got his
start under the aegis of the Koch-funded and Koch-founded Cato Institute by
writing about legalizing drugs. The Daily Kos calls Greenwald, an open
homosexual, a “Koch libertarian.” Cato has promoted Greenwald’s anti-NSA
book, No Place to Hide.
The dirty little secret is that the Koch Brothers, who have been smeared by the
progressives as right-wing conservatives, are in fact libertarians who share much
of the progressive agenda. The Daily Banter ran an insightful piece by Bob Cesca
under the headline, “How Drudge, Assange, Greenwald and the Pauls Are Unifying
Under a Libertarian Banner.” Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks who went to
work for Moscow-funded Russia Today television and praised Senator Rand Paul and
his father, former Congressman Ron Paul, and Matt Drudge of “Drudge Report” fame.
Drudge, who has called himself a libertarian, has not to our knowledge spoken at any
Koch-sponsored events. However, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have done so. “I've
played golf with Charles Koch and I know all of them,” Limbaugh said. “They're fine
people.” But on issues important to traditional conservatives, the Koch Brothers take
extreme liberal positions they call “libertarian.”
2
An August 30, 2012 story in Politico quoted David Koch as saying “he disagrees with
the GOP’s stance on gay marriage and believes the U.S. needs to consider raising
taxes to balance the budget.”
It reported, “Koch said he thinks the U.S. military should withdraw from the Middle East
and said the government should consider defense spending cuts, as well as possible
tax increases to get its fiscal house in order — a stance anathema to many in the
Republican Party.”
The Koch-funded Cato Institute is notorious for its prominent homosexual staffers and
devotion to marijuana legalization. David Boaz, the executive vice president of the Cato
Institute, moderated a forum on “gay conservatives” at the Cato Institute that featured
Andrew Sullivan, the HIV-positive writer who voted for John Kerry in 2004 because
President George W. Bush opposed homosexual marriage. Sullivan later got “married”
to another man. Boaz, a member of the Independent Gay Forum and pro-marijuana
activist, sits on the board of Students for Liberty and appeared with his “partner” at a
Maryland event for gay marriage:
3
Daniel Schulman, a senior editor in the Washington
bureau of Mother Jones magazine and the author of Sons
of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s
Most Powerful and Private Dynasty, reported on May 23,
2014, in the Washington Post that “…their fiercest critics
on the left may be surprised to learn that the Kochs
actually share a host of views with them, particularly on
social issues (though emphatically not on economic
ones).”
He added:
David [Koch] has criticized U.S. drug policy and
victimless-crime laws. “I have friends who smoke
pot. I know many homosexuals. It’s ridiculous to
treat them as criminals,” he said in 1980. He
supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights — positions that risk his
standing in the GOP. Charles seemingly shares these views.
The libertarian movement, in which Charles and David Koch were leading
figures, attempted to forge an alliance with the political left by highlighting the
issues on which they could agree, such as robust civil liberties, a non-
interventionist foreign policy, reproductive rights and the elimination of corporate
subsides. It sought to demolish “the two-party monopoly,” as David put it when
he accepted the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nomination in 1979. But the
fractious movement imploded in the wake of the 1980 election, after David and
his running mate claimed 1 percent of the popular vote but came under fire from
within the libertarian ranks for diluting the movement’s radical agenda on the
campaign trail. (They had, for instance, committed the heresy of failing to call for
the full eradication of the income tax.)
The Kochs ultimately abandoned the Libertarian Party, though not its core
beliefs, once the futility of challenging the two-party system became clear. Thus
began their three-decade climb from libertarian gadflies to Republican power
brokers. The question now is what they will do with their newly acquired clout
within the GOP.
A David Koch website says, “A passionate believer in free societies, Mr. Koch has
funded research and education programs that analyze how freedom creates prosperity
and advances social progress. He serves on the boards of the Cato Institute, Reason
Foundation and Americans for Prosperity Foundation.”
But Koch does business in unfree societies such as Russia, China, and Vietnam.
The Kochs’ business interests in Russia have been examined in previous issues of
World Revolution Report. This issue will mostly deal with China.
4
Some background is necessary. Rep. Christopher Cox in 1998 headed a select
committee probe into China’s theft of U.S. nuclear and military technology. The
committee found that China “has stolen classified design information on the United
States’ most advanced thermonuclear weapons. These thefts of nuclear secrets from
our national weapons laboratories enabled the PRC to design, develop, and
successfully test modern strategic nuclear weapons sooner than would otherwise have
been possible. The stolen U.S. nuclear secrets give the PRC design information on
thermonuclear weapons on a par with our own.”
Reed Irvine and I worked with Notra Trulock, who exposed this scandal when he was
Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy. His book, Code Name Kindred
Spirit, revealed the lax security at Los Alamos that enabled one of its scientists, Wen Ho
Lee, to download highly classified nuclear secrets onto insecure computers and copy
them onto tapes. It also exposed the lax attitude of the CIA, FBI and others in the
Clinton administration that made it impossible to staunch the flow of nuclear weapons
secrets, missile technology and supercomputers to China. (Lee was indicted on 59
felony counts and later released after pleading guilty to the one felony count.)
The Trulock book quotes Paul Redmond, former head of counterintelligence at the CIA,
as saying that “millions of Americans could someday die as a result of successful
Chinese nuclear espionage” against the U.S. In a reference to the American spies who
stole our nuclear secrets for the Soviet Union, Redmond told Trulock, “This is as bad as
the Rosenberg case.” The Rosenbergs were Soviet spies executed for espionage.
We documented how the Clinton administration pursued a pro-China policy that resulted
in playing down the China threat, including its espionage program against America. This
was motivated, at least in part, by PRC financial donations to the Democratic Party.
One chapter heading from the 1999 Report of the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and
Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China.
Business with China is justified under the rubric of “free trade.” Rev. Robert A. Sirico,
co-founder and president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
(funded by Koch), spoke at a (Koch-funded) Cato Institute Policy Forum on May 27,
1998. His paper on the same subject was published later that year.
5
Sirico has a controversial background. The National Catholic Reporter revealed that
Sirico “performed some of the first same-sex marriage ceremonies in history” in the
1970s. It added: “In a 1972 interview with the Seattle Times, while he was serving as
pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC)…Sirico announced his intention to
perform same-sex marriages. The MCC is a non-denominational church organized by
and for gays and lesbians.”
Columnist Randy Engel reported:
As a matter of fact, in addition to his continuing duties with the Universal
Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), Sirico became the
spokesman for the newly created Libertarians for Gay Rights. On September 26,
1977, the Los Angeles Times featured an article, "Libertarians Will Mount 1978
Gubernatorial Campaign" by Times political writer Bud Lembke, who interviewed
Sirico on the Libertarian agenda.
Sirico listed five areas where Libertarians and “liberals” were in agreement: the
deregulation of drug manufacture, possession and use; the decriminalization of
prostitution and pornography; extending rights to homosexuals; and allowing
mental patients to be free if they didn't break any law. Sirico emphasized that
Libertarians have views that some things, such as sadomasochism, are morally
wrong, but they don't believe government should censor them.
6
On the subject of China, 16 years later after his Cato presentation, what can be said
about Sirico’s libertarian view that “moral engagement” has improved the human rights
situation there? This is from the State Department Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 2013:
Citizens did not have the right to change their government, and citizens had limited
forms of redress against official abuse.
Other human rights problems during the year included extrajudicial killings, including
executions without due process; enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention,
including prolonged illegal detentions at unofficial holding facilities known as “black jails”;
torture and coerced confessions of prisoners; detention and harassment of lawyers,
journalists, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others who sought to exercise
peacefully their rights under the law; a lack of due process in judicial proceedings;
political control of courts and judges; closed trials; the use of administrative detention;
restrictions on freedom to assemble, practice religion, and travel; failure to protect
refugees and asylum seekers; pressure on other countries to return PRC citizens
forcibly; widespread corruption; intense scrutiny of and restrictions on nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs); discrimination against women, minorities, and persons with
disabilities; a coercive birth-limitation policy that in some cases resulted in forced
abortion (sometimes at advanced stages of pregnancy) or forced sterilization; trafficking
in persons; prohibitions on independent unions; lack of protection for workers’ right to
strike; forced and child labor; and poor enforcement of wage, overtime, and occupational
safety and health laws.
On the matter of freedom of religion, the State Department says:
The government exercised state control over religion and restricted the activities and
personal freedom of religious adherents when these were perceived, even potentially, to
threaten state or Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interests, including social stability.
The government harassed, assaulted, detained, arrested, or sentenced to prison a
number of religious adherents for activities reported to be related to their religious beliefs
and practices. There were also reports of physical abuse and torture in detention. Local
authorities often pressured unaffiliated religious believers to affiliate with patriotic
associations and used a variety of means, including administrative detention, to punish
members of unregistered religious or spiritual groups. In some parts of the country,
however, local authorities tacitly approved of or did not interfere with the activities of
unregistered groups.
7
Some unregistered Catholic clergy remained in detention, in particular in Hebei
Province. Harassment of unregistered bishops and priests continued, including
government surveillance and repeated detentions.
The Acton Institute continues to claim that “sanctions frequently enable China’s political
leaders to strengthen their hold on power by blaming the impoverished condition of their
country, not upon a lack of freedom there, but upon the very sanctions imposed by
outsiders to challenge the regime and its practices.” Yet “free trade” with China has
enabled China’s political leaders “to strengthen their hold on power” as well. In addition,
so-called “free trade” has made China into an economic and emerging military
superpower.
Ronald Reagan’s legacy has been abused in this crusade. In a July 17, 1998, article,
“Free Trade and Human Rights: The Moral Case for Engagement,” Sirico quoted
Ronald Reagan as saying, “The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of
human progress and peace among nations.”
In fact, Reagan waged economic warfare against the Soviet Union. The story is told in
such books as At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War. Reagan had a policy
of controlling technology transfers and exports to the Soviet bloc. In his 1987 State of
the Union address, Reagan said, “We are always willing to be trade partners but never
trade patsies.” In his August 6, 1983 radio address to the nation on international trade,
Reagan noted that, “To prevent a flood of imports from harming our struggling textile
industry, we imposed unilateral quotas on China's products.” Phyllis Schlafly wrote in
2012, “The businesses that support and lobby for so-called free trade are always trying
to wrap themselves in Ronald Reagan. But that’s false because Reagan would not have
allowed America to be cheated coming and going by foreign countries…”
The 2013 annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
included several eye-opening graphs:
8
The threat posed by China can be seen in the dispatch earlier this year in the New York
Times. The paper reported on NSA documents stolen and provided by NSA defector
Edward J. Snowden about how the agency “pried its way into the servers in Huawei’s
sealed headquarters in Shenzhen, China’s industrial heart…” This was presented as
somehow a threat to China.
But the story noted that, “American officials have long considered Huawei, the Chinese
telecommunications giant, a security threat, blocking it from business deals in the
United States for fear that the company would create ‘back doors’ in its equipment that
could allow the Chinese military or Beijing-backed hackers to steal corporate and
government secrets.”
But while Huawei has been blocked from business deals in the U.S., a Koch Industries
company called Molex has been supplying Huawei. Koch bought the company in late
2013. This year Molex announced that it had “expanded its global tooling capabilities
with the opening of a 200,000-square-foot facility at its Chengdu hi-tech development
zone facility in China.”
9
The NSA slides obtained by the Times [excerpts below] note that the agency wants to
see how Huawei is assisting other “targets” and how the technology poses a national
security threat to the U.S.
Despite the tone of the Times article, the NSA’s activities were entirely appropriate and
justified. A U.S. House Intelligence Committee in 2012 released what InfoWorld called
“a damning report about Huawei (and ZTE), saying the companies posed a national
security threat to the United States because of their potential to spy and steal data on
behalf of the Chinese government.”
NSA slides describe Huawei’s links to the Chinese regime and other “targets.”
The House Intelligence Committee had warned about “the long-term security risks
associated with doing business” with Huawei. Yet, one year later Koch Industries
bought Molex. Koch Industries in China and Vietnam include:
10A Wichita Eagle story quoted Steve Feilmeier, Koch’s chief financial officer, as saying
that Molex has global capabilities, and that 70 percent of its revenue and employees are
outside the U.S.. Molex built its first plant in China in 1984. “They’ve been there for
nearly 30 years,” Feilmeier said. “That kind of experience is invaluable. We were
impressed.” In a statement, the story said, Charles Koch, chairman and chief executive
officer of Koch Industries, explained, “Molex has become a global leader by focusing on
product innovation and value creation, driven by its talented leadership and employees.
We look forward to jointly applying the capabilities of our two companies to help take
both to the next level.” The acquisition matches up well with Koch’s culture and core
capabilities, Koch said. “It also provides a significant new platform for growth,” he said.
The Koch Brothers ignored the advice offered on October 8, 2012 by the Chairman and
Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers (R-MI) and C.A.
Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD). They released a report “recommending to U.S.
companies considering doing business with Chinese telecommunications companies
Huawei and ZTE to find another vendor.” According to an official press release, “The
report encouraged U.S. companies to take into account the long-term security risks
associated with either company providing equipment or services to our
telecommunications infrastructure. Additionally, the report recommended that U.S.
government systems, particularly sensitive systems, exclude Huawei or ZTE equipment
or component parts.” The press release said:
The report highlights the interconnectivity of U.S. critical infrastructure systems
and warns of the heightened threat of cyber espionage and predatory disruption
or destruction of U.S. networks if telecommunications networks are built by
companies with known ties to the Chinese state, a country known to aggressively
steal valuable trade secrets and other sensitive data from American companies.
Additionally, the report notes that modern critical infrastructure is incredibly
connected, everything from electric power grids to banking and finance systems
to natural gas, oil, and water systems to rail and shipping channels. All of these
entities depend on computerized control systems. The risk is high that a failure or
disruption in one system could have a devastating ripple effect throughout many
aspects of modern American living.
11The report, released today in a Capitol Hill news conference, states that Huawei
and ZTE provided incomplete, contradictory, and evasive responses to the
Committee’s core concerns. The report comes after a year-long investigation
into the national security dangers posed by Huawei and ZTE, the two largest
Chinese telecommunications companies doing business in the United States.
KOCH INDUSTRIES, THE RON PAUL/RAND PAUL REVOLUTION, AND THE
TAKEOVER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times reported on March 6, 2012, that Edward H. Crane,
then president of the Cato Institute and its co-founder with Charles Koch, traveled to
China and the Soviet Union “as they joined to form Cato in the mid-1970s.” Analyst
Nevin Gussack notes the trip was made “for yet unexplained reasons” and no rationale
12was provided in the Times article. Clearly, however, the countries were being examined
for investment opportunities. Koch Industries has since developed major business
operations in both China and Russia. We looked at some of these operations in the last
two editions of “World Revolution Report.”
Rand Paul speaking at the Charles Koch Institute foreign policy forum
A lot of what the Koch Brothers are doing is admirable. Their companies create many
jobs and they support some very good libertarian-conservative groups. But we have
noticed their failure to support pro-defense organizations and that it appears they are
preparing to back a Rand Paul bid for the presidency in 2016. The Kentucky Senator
just denounced Hillary Clinton, the co-author of the failed Russian “re-set,” as a war
hawk.
In practical terms, the Koch-sponsored brand of libertarianism means open borders,
legal dope and prostitution, abortion and gay rights, and an American military
withdrawal from the rest of the world.
Justin Logan, associate director of foreign policy studies at the Koch-funded Cato
Institute, wrote a 2008 policy paper attacking “the failed policies of the Bush
Administration” and praising Obama for a proposed policy of engaging with “rogue
regimes.” This represents “a prudent break with the Bush Administration,” he claimed.
RAND PAUL MOVES LEFT
Charles D. Ellison, Washington correspondent for the Philadelphia Tribune, writes at
The Root that, “It’s no coincidence that the once-fringe libertarian movement suddenly
went mainstream just as the Koch brothers got hip to its politics. In fact, they’ve
managed to align both libertarians and conservatives in such a way that they could form
13a potent force in the 2016 elections—perhaps backing White House aspirant Sen. Rand
Paul (R-Ky.).”
Consider that the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) announced on June 6, 2014, that
it has received a $25 million grant from Koch Industries, Inc. and the Charles Koch
Foundation.
The Labor and Working-Class History Association ran an article noting that the Koch
brothers’ gift to the UNCF “brings to mind U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s recent
outspokenness about racial disparities in federal drug sentencing policy. The
Republican congressman from Kentucky, who is likely to run for his party’s 2016
presidential nomination, has joined hands on the issue with Democrats like Cory
Booker, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as addressed the National
Urban League about the need to ameliorate the effects of mass incarceration.”
This could easily result in a backlash. Black conservative Niger Innis told the
Washington Times that Senator Paul “is attempting a daring and risky strategy. The
minority participation in the GOP primary and caucuses is minimal to nonexistent, and
Sen. Paul has the potential to alienate base GOP voters that are tough-on-crime
Republicans. This potential vulnerability will be exploited by his primary opponents.”
RAND PAUL’S ALEX JONES PROBLEM
Rand Paul, who has refused to condemn NSA defector Edward Snowden as a traitor
and is working with the ACLU to restrict the authority of the NSA, has appeared several
times on the Alex Jones radio show, featured on his website prisonplanet.tv. Jones is an
advocate of the theory that diabolical U.S. intelligence agencies and other dark forces
attacked the United States on 9/11, and that the Muslim agents of al Qaeda who
hijacked the planes were patsies. Jones has also become a regular on the propaganda
channel Russia Today television, which is financed by the Kremlin, where he has
defended the Russian military invasion of Georgia.
Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center, who has been a conservative activist for
decades, has spoken out publicly about the dangers of Alex Jones. He has written two
major articles on Jones and his relationships, including with a former high-level member
of the Lyndon LaRouche cult. LaRouche began his career as a Marxist but his followers
have tried to sound conservative on some issues over the years. Back in the 1980s, the
LaRouche movement was considered a mouthpiece for a pro-Soviet line in foreign
affairs, with its members specializing in confusing conservatives about Communist and
Soviet intentions.
What convinced DeWeese that Jones was a threat and not a friend of the conservative
or Tea Party movements was what happened in Texas when Catherine Bleish,
Executive Director of the Liberty Restoration Project, and John Bush, Executive Director
of Texans for Accountable Government, put together a Tea Party rally. DeWeese notes
that Jones stormed into the rally “with bull horn in hand, shouting down the speaker who
14was in the middle of his presentation. He stopped the rally, pushed and shoved
organizers who tried to quiet him. He then told his radio audience that he was shouting
down agent provocateur- radicals who were trying to infest the freedom movement.
Incredibly, he was describing his own tactics and blaming it on others.”
Jones is so disruptive that he could damage or even destroy Rand Paul’s campaign.
And the part of the Tea Party movement backing Rand Paul could go down with him.
THE TAKEOVER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The libertarian takeover of the Republican Party, as Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works
describes it, would be complete with Rand Paul capturing the Republican presidential
nomination in 2016. In the meantime, they are working on this strategy step by step.
Kibbe is also president of Freedom Works PAC, which endorsed Rep. Justin Amash for
U.S. Congress in Michigan’s 3rd district. Kibbe called Amash “a true fiscal conservative”
and said that he holds a 100 percent score on the Freedom Works Scorecard of
Economic Freedom.
Amash and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson were the most prominent
Republicans appearing at the October 26, 2013 far-left anti-NSA rally in Washington,
D.C., staged in honor of Edward Snowden. Amash has become a favorite of the far-left
for partnering with Democratic Rep. John Conyers (MI) in an effort to defund the NSA’s
surveillance programs. Analyst Trevor Loudon notes, “Conyers has a more than 40 year
history of collaborating with the Communist Party and almost as long with the
Democratic Socialists of America.”
Justin Amash posing with anti-NSA protesters
Amash survived his primary challenger, local businessman Brian Ellis, who launched an
ad saying that Amash is "Al Qaeda's best friend in Congress." The ad attacked Amash
on various issues, including voting for an amendment to shut down the terrorist
detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
15Amash acknowledges voting yes on an amendment to H R 1960, which would have
required the President to develop and implement a plan to close the terrorist detention
facility. It failed 174-249. Amash was one of six House Republicans who voted "yes."
The Ellis ad showed former Marine Ben Thomas saying: "It makes no sense. You know,
we were out there, fighting for the country and he's voting against anything that would
help us. Mr. Amash, you were called Al Qaeda's best friend in Congress, and for good
reason. Your votes put America at risk and that's a disgrace."
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA.) had told Politico that Amash has been “leading the charge
and not telling the truth about [NSA surveillance policies]. He’s been fanning the flames,
and it gets to the point where my assessment is this is a guy willing to work with San
Francisco Democrats to protect bait fish, and at the same time he’s Al Qaeda’s best
friend in the Congress.”
In the end, Amash defeated Ellis by a 57-43 percent margin.
The libertarian movement appears to have the support of the influential Matt Drudge. In
2013, Drudge tweeted that "It's now Authoritarian vs Libertarian.” Drudge also asked his
followers why anyone would still vote Republican. "Who are they?!" he asked. "Raised
taxes; marching us off to war again; approves more NSA snooping."
PORNOGRAPHY, GAY RIGHTS, AND DRUGS
Drudge’s apparent preference for libertarianism seems strange, since it appears (based
on his selection of articles on the Drudge Report) to back border control.
The New York Times story alluded to earlier also included this fascinating paragraph:
While its focus on libertarianism and individual liberties has often aligned the
Cato Institute with conservatives on issues like gun rights and financial
regulation, it has also staked out a number of positions closely tied to liberals. It
generally supports same-sex marriage and guest immigrant-worker
programs, for instance, while opposing the Patriot Act’s sweeping
counterterrorism powers, aggressive use of American military intervention,
and the criminalization of drugs.
David H. Koch of Koch Industries sits on the board of the Reason Foundation, which
sponsors Reason Magazine and Reason TV. Reason Magazine ran an article in 2003
by Jacob Sullum on why heroin is supposedly less dangerous than alcohol and how
people can use the drug without harmful effects. He compared heroin to nicotine. “Even
daily opiate use is not necessarily inconsistent with a productive life,” he wrote. Sullum
wrote the 2004 book, Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, featuring a marijuana joint
on the cover.
16“I smoke marijuana, and I like it,” declared research fellow Will Wilkinson of the Koch-
founded Cato Institute in a controversial and eye-opening column. In fact, an activist
named Pete Eyre was an intern with the Cato Institute and a Koch Fellow at the Soros-
funded Drug Policy Alliance. This is significant because the Koch Brothers are
considered enemies of the “progressives.” It seems that, on the matter of ending the so-
called war on drugs, the Koch Brothers and “progressive” philanthropist George Soros
agree. The list of Charles Koch Institute “partner organizations” includes another pro-
drug group, the Marijuana Policy Project Foundation.
Cato and Reason also support homosexual marriage. The advisory board of the
American Foundation for Equal Rights includes Robert Levy of the Cato Institute and
John Podesta of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress as co-chairs.
Together, they wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post insisting that the U.S.
Constitution affirms and protects “marriage rights” for homosexuals. Nick Herbert of the
British Conservative Party spoke to the Cato Institute and said he looked forward to the
day when “the Prime Minister of the UK or the President of the United States could just
as easily be gay as black.” Cato has itself received funding from the Soros-funded Open
Society Institute.
America’s founders regarded homosexuality as a crime against nature and it was
prohibited in the states and the military.
A major group supported by the Koch Brothers has also taken a stand in favor of
material that is pornographic or obscene. Here is an article from Reason magazine:
Janet Romano was described in the article as a pornographic “actress” and director
whose credits include “Pain and Suffering,” “I Love to Hurt You,” and “Cannibalism, and
Sexual Intrusive Dysfunctional Society 2.” Rob Zicari is a pornographer who owns the
pornography company with his wife Janet Romano that is called “Extreme Associates.”
Their specialty was graphic pornography featuring the rape and murder of women. They
got one year in prison for distributing obscenity.
Pornographer John Stagliano and his appropriately named “Evil Angel Productions”
managed to avoid an obscenity prosecution because a judge dismissed the charges.
The material at issue in the “Evil Angel” case was so disgusting and offensive that it is
not advisable in print to describe its graphic nature. His reputation as the “Buttman”
should give you some indication of what he is interested in. His films mostly involve
what is called “anal fetishism.”
17The national Libertarian Party issued a press release in advance of the scheduled trial
saying that the court proceeding against “Evil Angel” was unconstitutional. The release
noted at the very end that “John Stagliano has been a donor to the Libertarian National
Committee.” Stagliano, who Lives in Malibu, California, in a mansion overlooking the
Pacific Ocean, is also a donor to the libertarian Reason Foundation and the Cato
Institute. He provides them with big bucks and in return they defend him as a modern-
day Thomas Jefferson. Dollar amounts are not available. But other articles describe the
funding as “significant” or “sizeable.” The records of the Federal election Commission
(FEC) also show Stagliano contributing to Ron Paul.
On the Fox Business Network (FBN), libertarian host John Stossel and Andrew
Napolitano had denounced the attempt to prosecute Stagliano, saying there should be
no laws on the books against obscenity. They didn’t say whether they believed, as the
ACLU does, that child pornography should be legal as well. But that is the logical
extension of their arguments.
It was later discovered that John Stagliano, and his wife, Karen Stagliano, were both
infected with the HIV virus causing AIDS.
Cato Institute 1996 annual report list of contributors includes
the Koch Brothers and pornographer John Stagliano
18THE FACTS ABOUT POLICE “MILITARIZATION”
In his effort to appeal to left-wing elements in the Democratic Party, Senator Paul talked
about the “militarization” of the police. “The images and scenes we continue to see in
Ferguson resemble war more than traditional police action,” he wrote in Time magazine.
These allegations about the “militarization” of police were picked up by dozens of media
outlets, on the left and right, and made the libertarian Republican Senator into a liberal
media darling. But they were designed to make the police look bad for protecting
themselves and their community. The Koch Brothers funded anti-police activist Radley
Balko through the Cato Institute and Reason Foundation.
It turns out that the “militarization of police” is a sensational term for police officer safety
in the face of drug gangs, crazy gunmen and race riots.Rand Paul’s comments on
police “militarization” seem designed to appeal to radical blacks concerned about the
police being well-armed in order to defend their communities. I thought it would be
appropriate to provide excerpts from the Pentagon briefing with Rear Admiral John
Kirby on August 22, 2014:
Q: Last night, Missouri Representatives Clay and Cleaver met with the secretary
to talk about the 1033 program. Can you tell me if the secretary is contemplating
an official review or even a temporary suspension of that program and, if so,
when that might happen?
REAR ADM. KIRBY: …I do want to point out, you know, that most of the -- first of
all, the military is not the only source of tactical gear used by law
enforcement in this country. And I think we're losing sight of that. And we look
at -- we see the pictures, and we think, `Well, that's all military.'
Most of the stuff you're seeing in video coming out of Ferguson is not
military equipment. And as I've said before, Ferguson itself only had -- they got
two Humvees, soft- skinned Humvees from this program and a generator and I
think a trailer. And that's it. So a lot of this is not U.S. military equipment. That's
point number one.
Point number two I would make is 95 percent of the property that is
transferred to local law enforcement through this program is not tactical.
It's not -- it's not weapons. It's shelving, office equipment, communications
gear, that kind of thing -- furniture. So it -- I think it's important to keep this thing
in perspective...
Q: So the local media accounts of these vehicles being heavily armored is
incorrect?
REAR ADM. KIRBY: I don't know whether they're heavily armored or
not…They're -- I'm talking -- no, and what I said was the two Humvee vehicles
19that we provided to Ferguson were soft-skinned, not armored. Now other
tactical vehicles they have, I can't speak for where they got them and whether
they're armored or not. I just don't know. But I just was trying to make the point
that as you look at the video coming out of Ferguson -- I understand how people
would look at that and say, `Well, gee, look at all that military gear,' most of it.
In fact, almost all of it, is not military gear. It didn't -- doesn't belong to us.
We didn't provide it for them…
Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson (GA) had introduced a bill to “rein in police
militarization.” A USA Today column on this topic was written by Johnson, a member of
the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Michael Shank, associate director for
legislative affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Shank previously
served as Senior Policy Advisor and Communications Director to Rep. Michael Honda
(D-CA), another member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“FREEDOM WORKS” AND THE KOCH BROTHERS
In a story about the support apparatus behind NSA defector Edward Snowden, we
noted that a coalition, “Stop Watching Us,” included conservative groups such as
Freedom Works and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in addition to MoveOn.org,
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Soros-funded Free Press, the ACLU, and Glenn
Greenwald’s Freedom of the Press Foundation. Greenwald was Snowden’s media
mouthpiece.
Freedom Works began as a Koch brothers-funded group called Citizens for a Sound
Economy. The Kochs have no formal ties with the organization today.
Nevertheless, Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works collaborates closely with Koch-funded
groups and Senator Rand Paul on anti-NSA activities. He declared in an April 2014
interview on Reason TV that, ““The radical progressives did a very good job of taking
over the Democratic Party. The biggest window for libertarians is not to create a third
party but to actually take over the Republican Party.”
This would be quite a feat. A survey of Republicans found that only 12 percent call
themselves libertarian.
20His bio says that he “liberally” expropriates leftist organizer Saul Alinsky in his own
book, Rules for Patriots: A Pocket Primer for Patriotic Americans.
Kibbe came up with "Rules for Liberty" in contrast to community organizer Saul Alinsky's
thirteen “Rules for Radicals.” He told Reason TV, “When we were forming Freedom
Works, we were actually reading all of the leftist literature and we actually read Saul
Alinsky before it was cool. And I was comparing the rules for radicals to the rules for
liberty and I realized how situational and how manipulative Alinsky is…”
Reason Magazine, which reported the remarks, added that, “A former Capitol Hill
staffer, Kibbe says there's increasingly common ground between libertarians and
progressives in the Democratic Party on issues such as surveillance and privacy.”
What he meant was that they agreed on curbing the powers of the NSA.
The website of Freedom Works lists “civil liberties” – code for opposition to the NSA –
as their only possible national security or foreign policy issue.
Senator Paul’s foreign policy views and support for NSA leaker Edward Snowden have
already been strongly criticized by pro-defense Republicans. Snowden, who has been
granted political asylum in Russia, donated to the 2012 presidential campaign of the
senator’s father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). Snowden’s financial contribution to Ron
Paul listed his occupation as “technology.”
21WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s praise of Rand Paul made big headlines on the
Russia Today (RT) propaganda channel and were featured by the Voice of Russia
radio. Assange also praised Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report for being “a news media
innovator” and “breaking a lot of the censorship.”
Former Russia Today host Adam Kokesh pleaded guilty to drug and gun charges.
The Moscow-funded propaganda channel RT has developed a significant viewership of
Ron Paul supporters in the U.S. who regarded the Adam Kokesh show as a vehicle for
airing their theories nationwide. America’s Survival, Inc. filed a Federal Election
Commission (FEC) complaint over Kokesh’s on-air fundraising for Paul’s presidential
campaign. Kokesh, who freely admitted being a “paid Russian agent” while on the air,
had claimed total freedom and editorial control over his RT program. Despite the fact
22that it is illegal for a foreign corporation such as RT to interfere in U.S. elections by
providing campaign support for any candidate, the FEC dismissed the complaint. In the
meantime, RT cancelled the Kokesh show. Wikipedia reported the controversy this way:
After only a few months on RT, Adam vs. The Man was canceled in August by
that network to avoid potential legal problems stemming from an FEC complaint
filed against Russia Today by the group America’s Survival, Inc. over the matter
of Kokesh endorsing Ron Paul for President (thereby allegedly running afoul of
the Foreign Agents Registration Act).
In June of this year Kokesh in effect pleaded guilty to two felonies related to his
possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms while possessing a gun. He faces a maximum
of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on September 5. The Ron Paul Institute of
Peace and Prosperity insisted that Kokesh “appears to have joined the long list of
victims of the US government's drugs and guns prosecution trap.”
The board of this Ron Paul group includes Judge Andrew Napolitano, Senior Judicial
Analyst at the Fox News Channel, and Rep. Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC), a close associate
of the Lyndon LaRouche organization. He publicly thanked “the LaRouche people” for
the “magnificent job” they are doing on Capitol Hill to support his legislative initiatives.
Kokesh posted a video of himself loading a shotgun near the White House,
Ron Paul had appeared on the Kokesh show calling for an end to NATO and attacking
former President Bush’s anti-terrorism policies. During another 2009 appearance on RT,
Paul called sanctions against Iran over its nuclear weapons program an “act of war.” In
2008, Paul gave Russia Today another interview, saying, “It’s great that the Cold War
23has ended. And I would want to continue the process of [a] peaceful relationship but not
threaten Russia in any way because I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Paul supported Kokesh’s 2010 run for Congress, saying, “Adam Kokesh has dedicated
his life to fighting for Liberty. He has set himself apart as one of the bold young leaders
our country sorely needs as we strive to restore our freedoms and what has made
America the greatest nation in history. I am very happy that Adam has decided to run for
Congress and wholeheartedly endorse him.” Paul’s political organization gave Kokesh
$3,000, his biggest financial contribution.
Plastics News on January 27, 2014 reported that Molex Inc., a manufacturer of
electronic, electrical and fiber optic interconnection systems, has expanded its global
tooling capabilities with the opening of a 200,000-square-foot facility at its Chengdu hi-
tech development zone facility in China. Molex, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, has
seven production facilities in “Greater China” – Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and
Taiwan. The release noted its big clients include Samsung, Apple and the “domestic
giant,” China’s largest telecommunications firm, Huawei. Koch bought Molex last
December.
Investigative reporter Bill Gertz had reported in 2011 that a U.S. intelligence report had
linked Huawei to “Beijing’s KGB-like intelligence service” and says it “received nearly a
quarter-billion dollars from the Chinese government.”
A CBS “60 Minutes” report, "Huawei," which aired on October 7, 2012, reported that
“Huawei is aggressively pursuing a foothold in the United States, hoping to build the
next generation of digital networks here. It's prompted an outcry in Washington, and a
year-long investigation by the House Intelligence Committee that has raised concerns
24about national security, Chinese espionage, and Huawei's murky connections to the
Chinese government.”
This aired before Koch Industries bought Molex, which works hand-in-glove with
Huawei.
Correspondent Steve Kroft said U.S. officials are concerned that “the Chinese
government could exploit Huawei's presence on U.S. networks to intercept high level
communications, gather intelligence, wage cyber war, and shut down or disrupt critical
services in times of national emergency.”
The House Intelligence Committee on October 8, 2012 released a report which
“highlighted the potential security threat posed by Chinese telecommunications
companies with potential ties to the Chinese government or military.” One was Huawei.
The Koch Industries website notes that:
Based in Lisle, Ill., Molex Incorporated is a global manufacturer of electronic,
electrical and fiber optic interconnection systems. It offers about 100,000
products to a number of markets, including mobile devices, infotech,
consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications, industrial,
medical, military and aerospace. The company operates 45 manufacturing
locations in 17 countries.
The company describes itself this way: “Molex is the world’s leading manufacturer of
connectors. You might not realize just how important connectors are to making people’s
lives better all over the world. From the cellphone and computer you use every day, to
your car and the television monitors in the newsroom, connectors are everywhere.”
In terms of military products, Molex says its connectors are manufactured for such
systems as missiles, ground vehicles, unmanned vehicles (drones), aircraft
management systems, and aircraft avionics (Black-box applications, including
embedded computing, radar and cockpit communication systems, as well as integration
with ground networks, navigation and flight-management systems.)
Molex has helped make Huawei into the powerful company it is today. In 2009, Molex
announced that it has received the prestigious Core Partner Award for superior
performance as a global supplier from Huawei.
Molex was awarded the 2008 “Best Technical Support” award by Huawei. The company
said in a release that, “The award recognizes Molex’s continued assistance to and
support of Huawei’s R&D team in providing timely and professional technical advice and
strong sales and customer service for Huawei’s new product design.”
25The House Intelligence Committee report included the following about Huawei:
The Committee finds that Huawei did not fully cooperate with the investigation
and was unwilling to explain its relationship with the Chinese government or
Chinese Communist Party, while credible evidence exists that Huawei fails to
comply with U.S. laws.
Huawei did not provide clear and complete information on its corporate structure
and decision-making processes, likely remains dependent on the Chinese
government for support.
Huawei failed to explain its relationships with the Chinese government, and its
assertions denying support by the Chinese government are not credible.
Huawei admits that the Chinese Communist Party maintains a Party Committee
within the company, but it failed to explain what the Party Committee does on
behalf of the Party or which individuals compose the Committee.
Huawei’s corporate history suggests ties to the military, and Huawei failed to
provide detailed answers to questions about those connections. Huawei failed to
provide details of its operations in Iran, though it denied doing business with the
government of Iran, and did not provide evidence to support its claims that it
complies with all international sanctions or U.S. export laws.
Huawei refused to provide details on its R&D programs, and other documents
undermine its claim that Huawei provides no R&D for the Chinese military or
intelligence services.
THE KOCH BROTHERS’ RUSSIAN CONNECTION
As previously reported by the World Revolution Report, Fred Koch helped the Soviet
Union set up its oil industry but came back to the U.S. proclaiming staunch anti-
communism. However, we have also discovered that he went back to the Soviet Union
in 1956.
Analyst Nevin Gussack explains and comments:
In July 1956, eleven prominent Kansas businessmen visited the Soviet Union to
persuade the communists that Soviet propaganda against American capitalists is
untrue. Arthur W. Kincaide, President of the Fourth National Bank of Wichita
noted that “We capitalists have been painted as oppressive masters of the
laboring people…We are nothing of the sort. Although we are wealthy in terms of
worldly goods, we are humanitarians in every respect.” Kincaide came up with
the idea of the “friendship tour” and hoped to establish more “trust and
understanding” of American businessmen towards the USSR. The eleven
businessmen visited “ordinary Russians” and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
officials from various occupations in the USSR. The businessmen included Arthur
W. Kincade, Fred C. Koch , Fred Anschutz, Virsil Browne Jr., Curtis W. Cannon,
Kenneth C. Fitch, Oliver W. Hughes, D.R. Lauck, Fred Murfin, and Amos C.
Small. It was significant that the father of the future funders for American
26libertarian groups was still part of an effort in lending economic legitimacy to the
still oppressive and aggressive Soviet dictatorship. The bigger questions loom:
Why did the businesspeople visiting the Ministry of Internal Affairs; what actually
transpired during this trip? Were any trade deals inked during this visit? Why
would Fred Koch lend legitimacy to the Soviets after his progressive
disillusionment with communism during the Stalin period?
Why would someone who became an anti-communist such as Fred Koch visit the
USSR in 1956 and then visit the MVD or Ministry of Internal Affairs? That's a
looming question in my mind.
Then, in 2002, the Koch Brothers began importing Russian oil into the U.S. That same
year, what was described as a high-level meeting on U.S. and Russian cooperation in
the commercial energy sector took place October 1-2 at Rice University in Houston,
Texas. It was described as being “part of the new bilateral relationship announced
27during the summit between Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin held earlier”
in Moscow.
The “U.S.-Russia Commercial Energy Summit” was sponsored by the American
Petroleum Institute, the American Chamber of Commerce-Moscow, and the U.S.-Russia
Business Council. A report on the event from the Baker Institute said one of the
speakers was Tyumen Oil Co. president Simon Kukes, who told the summit participants
that his company was “continuing to explore export routes to the U.S. and noted that a
120,000-ton cargo of Russian crude was sold in September 2002 to U.S. refiner Koch,
with part of it dedicated to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”
Forbes magazine described Kukes in a 2012 article as “a Russian-American tycoon
who previously served as the CEO of two of the country’s largest energy companies,
Tyumen Oil (TNK) and Yukos Oil. At the latter he replaced the imprisoned Mikhail
Khodorkovsky amid Vladimir Putin’s most notorious power grab.” Khodorkovsky was
jailed by Putin as a political opponent in 2003 and the assets of his company Yukos
were confiscated by the Putin regime. He was freed by Putin last December.
One of the “Koch milestones.”
According to his bio, Kukes was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Rice University, Houston,
Texas from 1977 to 1979 and today serves as an advisor to the Foreign Policy
Association. He emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in the 1970s but
returned to Russia. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tyumen Oil
Company from 1998 to 2003.
The delivery of the first-ever Russian crude oil to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve
was arranged by Koch Supply & Trading, another subsidiary.
The Wichita Business Journal reported on October 4, 2002:
Koch Supply & Trading has opened a new sales and marketing office in Moscow
to focus on trading crude oil, petroleum products and other commodities.
"There is significant momentum in the Russian oil industry," said Steve Mawer,
president of Koch Supply & Trading. "Our focus with this new office is to expand
our capabilities and better serve Russian markets."
28The company has a significant role in Russia as a purchaser of crude oil, fuel oil,
naphtha and other petroleum products, and is among the most active U.S.
traders in moving Russian crude, Koch officials say.
Thus far in 2002, Koch Supply & Trading has purchased about 4.3 million barrels
of Russian crude, nearly 25 percent of the total imports by U.S. companies,
officials say.
Koch Supply & Trading has been a sponsor of the World Fuel Oil Summit
An August 27, 2003, Business Wire release said:
Russian government leaders recently returned from a fact-finding trip to
Washington, D.C., Houston and New York City to learn about the way the United
States conducts and regulates derivatives markets.
The trip, hosted by international commodity trading firm Koch Supply &
Trading, allowed representatives from the Central Bank, Ministry of Economic
Development and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Antimonopoly, and
Russia's national legislative body to meet with senior officials in the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the
New York Mercantile Exchange, as well as experts on the legal and marketing
issues of commodity derivatives.
"We are poised to develop a strong derivatives market in Russia and are actively
seeking information about how others have implemented such procedures," said
Victor Pleskachevsky, chairman of the Property Committee of the State
Duma. "We hope to learn more from the experience of Koch Supply &
29Trading, as well as other American firms, as we implement reforms and
create new risk management tools specifically for Russian businesses."
"We are impressed with the progress the Russian government has achieved thus
far in building a strong derivatives trading market in Russia," said Sergei
Timokhovitch, Koch Supply & Trading general director for Russia and the
Commonwealth of Independent States trading. "We are pleased to be involved
with committees working to develop these markets."
The release said that Koch Supply & Trading (KS&T) became registered on the St.
Petersburg Currency Exchange, “an important achievement as it continues to grow its
Russian trading activities and better serve Russian markets…”
Sergei Timokhovitch spent 11 years with Koch Industries, from 2002 to 2007 as the
company’s head for Russia and the CIS.
Bio for Timokhovitch 2010. He went to work for VTB, Russia’s second-biggest bank
The release went on:
The company has a significant role in Russia as a purchaser of crude oil, fuel oil,
naphtha and other petroleum products, and is among the most active U.S.
traders in moving Russian crude. In 2002, KS&T purchased about 4.2 million
barrels of Russian crude, about 20 percent of the total imports by U.S.
companies. In addition, the company purchased about 18 million barrels of
Russian fuel oil. Koch Supply & Trading also delivered the first-ever shipment of
Russian crude oil to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in October 2002. The
company moves products through hubs, ports and terminals around the world,
including the United States, Europe, Singapore and the Middle East.
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