Reply #128: N.E.D. contributes to C.A.N.F.

[Judi Lynn]

N.E.D. is purely taxpayers' money, and C.A.N.F. has directly paid terrorists, as testified by Luis Posada Carriles, bomber/ex-CIA/exile terrorist.

Here's one description of how the money travels from Congress to N.E.D., and is passed on to C.A.N.F.:

(snip) Since its establishment in 1981, the Cuban American National Foundation has been one of the most effective lobbies in Washington. Its extraordinary success in persuading Congress to underwrite a host of Castro-bashing activities is due in no small part to the lobby's lavish funding of the political campaigns of anti-Castro candidates, to slick propaganda and to a willingness to brand its opponents as Communist sympathizers.

While there is nothing particularly unusual about this style of Washington power-politics, the CANF has an unfair advantage that violates the spirit if not the letter of Federal law. Federal Election Commission records and other documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the foundation's efforts to manipulate the debate on U.S.-Cuban relations and other issues are indirectly subsidized by taxpayers' dollars.

....The central figure in this hustle is Jorge Mas Canosa, founder and chair of the CANF....by both a quirk of circumstance and an effective carrot-and-stick strategy, Mas and his foundation were able to enlist the support of Rep. Dante Fascell, the powerful chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee....In 1983, Fascell was a member of the bipartisan study group that recommended the creation and Federal funding of the National Endowment for Democracy....When the NED opened its doors for business, Fascell was the first to direct its board, although he resigned a few months later after moving up to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He continues as a member of the endowment's board.

One of the first grants awarded by the new endowment was to the Cuban American National Foundation 'to gather and disseminate information about the human rights situation in Cuba.' To date, the foundation has received a total of $390,000 in Federal funds from the NED.... During roughly the same time period, the political action committee created by CANF's directors has donated a nearly identical amount of money to the campaigns of scores of political candidates for Federal office, including Fascell.

...Because the Cuban American National Foundation and its PAC are separate legal entities with separate bank accounts, the Cuba lobby may not have technically violated . Obviously, when the CANF a windfall of NED grants to carry out activities that the foundation would have supported through internal channels, a greater percentage of its existing funds are freed up for use by the PAC.
(snip/...)

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