Susan Berresford’s Progress

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The decision of the American Civil Liberties Union to turn down more than $1 million in funding from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations will no doubt be the subject of much comment in the coming days. The ACLU’s decision came in reaction to new restrictions the two foundations had placed on the use of philanthropic funds, restrictions aimed at preventing the use of philanthropic funds to promote terrorism. The union put out a statement about how it is a “sad day when two of this country’s most beloved and respected foundations feel they are operating in such a climate of fear and intimidation that they are compelled to require thousands of recipients to accept vague grant language that could have a chilling effect on civil liberties.”


If the ACLU wants, in principle, to be able to use its funds to do what a beloved and respected foundation might construe as promoting terrorism and violence, that’s the ACLU’s business. It has an honorable history of defending some pretty unsavory characters, in the best American tradition. But the Ford Foundation was caught out last year by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which, in a devastating series of dispatches by Edwin Black, reported that Palestinian Arab groups supported by the Ford Foundation engaged in anti-Israel activities, particularly at a U.N. summit in Durban in 2001. The Ford Foundation in effect funded the campaign that turned Durban into such an anti-Israel hate fest that Secretary of State Powell withdrew the American delegation.


The JTA dispatches also indicated that American anti-terrorism officials were worried that accounting weaknesses, fraud, and embezzlement may have resulted in philanthropic grants ending up in the hands of pro-terrorist groups. At first the Ford Foundation feigned surprise at the hullabaloo ignited by the disclosures. But powerful figures in the House and Senate threatened to start looking into whether the tax code adequately punishes tax-exempt foundations that give to pro-terrorist organizations. The JTA also quoted an unnamed official of the Internal Revenue Service as saying the service reviews situations of congressional concern. Eventually the Ford Foundation and its president, Susan Berresford, agreed “to strengthen the oversight and transparency of Ford programming” to put an end to its funding of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities in the Middle East. That’s the context in which to view the latest news.


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