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October 18, 2005 -- Christian Right assault on the United Nations. The presence of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has resulted in a Christian Right alliance that brings together an anti-UN Catholic group and a GOP-connected right wing political training operation to interfere with U.S. foreign policy in a violation of the Logan Act of 1799, a law that forbids private U.S. citizens from making foreign policy on behalf of the United States government.
WMR is in possession of an e-mail memo dated October 17, 2005 from Austin Ruse, the President of C-FAM, a self-described "UN watchdog" group, to foreign recipients offering a one week intensive training course on the conservative political "revolution" in America. The training is being provided at the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based organization networked to various Christian Right organizations, including the Fellowship Foundation (also based in Arlington), and Pat Robertson's Virginia Beach-based operation. The Leadership Institute is headed by Morton Blackwell, a former head of the College Republican National Committee and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. Blackwell was also a leading force behind Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and the Council for National Policy. The Leadership Institute is part of a web of right-wing organizations tied to the Christian Dominionist movement, which calls for the establishment of a global one thousand year Christian kingdom.
The Leadership Institute described itself as an organization that "prepares conservatives for success in politics, government and the news media." Graduates of the Leadership Institute include such right wing luminaries as Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, both mentioned in new reports about the criminal probes of Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, and Jeff Gannon (alias James Guckert), White House Press Corps GOP shill and gay male prostitute. One of Blackwell's early apprentices was Karl Rove, who Blackwell trained as a Field Organizer for the GOP in 1970.
C-FAM is the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. The United Nations Plaza, New York-based organization describes itself as "assisting UN delegations to negotiate UN documents related to life, faith, family, and national sovereignty. C-FAM also assists other non-governmental organizations to enter into the UN life and family debate."
In 2003, C-FAM attacked Costa Rica's Women's Affairs Minister Esmerelda Britton Gonzalez for her attack on the Catholic Church at a UN meeting in New York of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The minister incurred the wrath of C-FAM, in particular, because she singled out the Catholic right-wing cult Opus Dei for its opposition to women's reproductive rights.
C-FAM was also squarely behind the nomination of Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the UN. This is what C-FAM's web site posted on August 1, 2005:
. . . the work of groups like C-FAM here at the U.N. becomes tremendously easier (or, rather, less hard) when people like George Bush are in the White House and they get to send men like John Bolton to the U.N. People who don't care about what 'global common sense' (read: elite global opinion) is on issues like disarmament also tend to be the people who do not care what global common sense is on abortion. Those people in America today are almost 100% conservative Republicans-and without them running the American Permanent Mission to the U.N., groups like C-FAM spend more time fighting our own government than we do dealing with any other government . . . The most important thing is to remember that that 'tough' style of Bolton's is exactly what is needed here at the U.N. on everything, not just the War in Iraq, etc; that all these months that Bolton hasn't been here, it has been worse for groups like ours."
With Bolton providing cover for the Christian Right at the UN, groups like C-FAM and the Leadership Institute are free to concentrate on supporting right-wing political parties in other countries. Blackwell's organization has a history of supporting right-wing political groups in countries like Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Jamaica, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, and Spain. Some of Blackwell's training is funded and facilitated through the U.S. taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy.
This is the e-mail sent to foreign political activists by C-FAM:
October 17, 2005
Dear Friend,
I am writing to invite you to come to the United States for a one-week intensive training seminar for political activists.
This series of classes will be specifically designed for non-Americans, for our friends overseas who are eager to learn from American political, media and fundraising professionals how to advance your issues in your own country.
You will learn from top notch professionals who have run political campaigns, run issues campaigns, worked with the media at all levels, and raised millions of dollars.
This program is being jointly sponsored by C-FAM and the highly respected Leadership Institute.
C-FAM, as you know, is the UN watchdog that also publishes the Friday Fax, which you subscribe to.
The Leadership Institute is the premier US teaching institute that identifies, recruits, trains, and places conservatives in politics, government, and the media. Since1979, the Leadership Institute has enrolled more than 40,000 students, many of whom are now working at the highest levels of government and public policy. You can learn more about the Leadership Institute at www.leadershipinstitute.org
At this one week intensive series of classes and lectures, you will learn how the conservative revolution happened in America, and how to emulate it in your own country.
The curriculum will be taught by political professionals who will teach you about:
- Understanding the media
- Developing and staying on message
- Building and maintaining coalitions
- Understanding legislative processes
- How to lobby
- Fundraising
- Organizing students
- How to start a newspaper
- Election strategy and tactics
- Voter identification and turnout
- Recruiting and nurturing volunteers
- Direct Mail
Friends, this is an amazing opportunity for you to learn the techniques that can help you start a genuine conservative political movement in your country.
That is the good news. The even better news is that the cost of this high level learning experience is only $300. This includes your tuition, housing in the Leadership Institute dormitory, and three meals a day. You will have to pay your own travel expenses to and from Washington DC (the Leadership Institute is located only a few miles from Washington's Reagan National Airport in the lovely northern Virginia suburb of Arlington.
If you are possibly interested in attending these classes, you must write right away to Connie Marshner of the Leadership Institute. You can reach her at CMarshner@LIMail.us
TO BE ACCEPTED INTO THESE CLASSES, YOU HAVE TO APPLY TO CONNIE MARSHNER AND PRIOR TO ACCEPTANCE YOU WILL HAVE TO SUPPLY RELIABLE POLITICALLY CONSERVATIVE REFERENCES.
If you are interested, you should act right away. There are only 25 positions available for this valuable course of study. Feel free to email Connie with any questions or comments.
Yours sincerely,
Austin Ruse
President
C-FAM
