George Soros (pron.: /ˈsɔroʊs/ or /ˈsɔrəs/; Hungarian: Soros György; Hungarian: [ˈʃoroʃ]; born August 12, 1930, as Schwartz
György) is a Hungarian-American business
magnate, investor, and philanthropist.
He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes. He is
known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank
of England" because of his US$1 billion in investment
profits during the 1992 Black
Wednesday UK currency crisis.
Between 1979 and 2011, Soros gave away over $8 billion to
human rights, public health, and education causes. He played a significant role
in the peaceful transition from communism to capitalism in Hungary (1984–89) and
provided Europe's largest higher education endowment to Central European University in Budapest. Soros
is also the chairman of the Open Society Institute.
Top 5 Revolutions Backed by George Soros
by Lisa Graas, columnist at NewsRealBlog
Multi-billionaire George Soros has been using his vast wealth at least since
1984 to “build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are
accountable to their citizens”, in his words. He has been “credited” or, more
accurately, blamed for providing funding for several revolutions in which
his preferred people took power. If you are a leftist, of course you might
consider this to be a good thing as the groups Soros funds to do his dirty work
are invariably leftist, including an enormous chunk of the radical Left here in
America. Here are the top 5 revolutions, some ongoing, which have received
substantial backing from George Soros.
1. The ‘Bulldozer Revolution’ in Serbia
On October 5, 2000, in the “
Bulldozer Revolution“, a movement funded partly by
George Soros swept Slobodan Milosevic from power. The LATimes reported on
Soros’ role, noting the problems it would cause if he were to get too much
credit for his activities. By providing lots of money to already existing but
struggling groups that Soros believed to be “pro-democracy”, including the
student group Otpor, Soros was able to topple that country’s government.
It’s an accomplishment that Hungarian-born financier George Soros doesn’t
flaunt. Bragging about it, after all, could just make his global
democracy-building mission more difficult.
But the multibillionaire philanthropist quietly played a key role in the
dramatic overthrow last year of President Slobodan Milosevic. His Soros
Foundations Network helped finance several pro-democracy groups, including the
student organization Otpor, which spearheaded grass-roots resistance to the
authoritarian Yugoslav leader.
In a 2003 news conference, Soros owned up to his involvement, not only to the
revolt in Yugoslavia but other countries, as well.
“It is necessary to mobilize civil society in order to assure free and fair
elections because there are many forces that are determined to falsify or to
prevent the elections being free and fair,” Mr. Soros said. “This is what we
did in Slovakia at the time of [Vladimir] Meciar, in Croatia at the time of
[Franjo] Tudjman and in Yugoslavia at the time of Milosevic.”
In 2004, Richard Poe, in Velvet Revolution, USA, outlined the seven-step
strategy used by Soros to topple Milosevic. This strategy, Poe writes, is the
same “blueprint” used repeatedly by Soros in other countries: Form a Shadow
Government, Control the Airwaves, Bleed the State Dry, Sow Unrest, Provoke an
Election Crisis, Take the Streets, and above all, Outlast your Opponent.
2. Georgia’s “Rose Revolution”
After Yugoslavia, Soros set his sights on Georgia. Though he originally backed
President Eduard Shevardnadze, when Shevardnadze met with Soros’ disapproval,
Soros sought to replace him forthwith in the same manner that he had replaced
Milosevic. He prepared for his goal to topple Shevardnadze by sending a young
activist to Serbia to be trained by those who had successfully overthrown
Milosevic.
[...] [F]unds from his Open Society Institute sent a 31-year-old Tbilisi
activist named Giga Bokeria to Serbia to meet with members of the Otpor (Resistance)
movement and learn how they used street demonstrations to topple dictator
Slobodan Milosevic. Then, in the summer, Mr. Soros’s foundation paid for a
return trip to Georgia by Otpor activists, who ran three-day courses teaching
more than 1,000 students how to stage a peaceful revolution.
In December, 2003 , the Melbourne Herald-Sun offered a basic overview of George
Soros‘ Open Society Institute‘s [OSI] impact in Georgia’s Rose Revolution
(Radio Islam):
[...] [Soros] backed Georgia’s former justice minister, Mikhail Saakashvili,
and spent some $4 million on a protest movement against the president. His
organisations brought in experts in “non-violent revolution” from Serbia, gave
$700,000 to an activist group that bussed in protesters, and financed an
anti-government TV station and newspaper.
It worked. Last month, protesters smashed into Georgia’s parliament, yelling —
probably correctly — that Shevardnadze had stolen the elections a month ago and
must quit. Shevardnadze fled, and Saakashvili looks set for leadership.
Georgian Foreign Minister Salomé Zourabichvili told the French journal Hérodote
that Soros’ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were not only responsible for
toppling Shevardnadze, but had subsequently became an integral part of the
resulting governmental power structure:
[...] [O]ne cannot end one’s analysis with the revolution and one clearly sees
that, afterwards, the Soros Foundation and the NGOs were integrated into power.
Indeed, the record clearly shows Soros’ influence in Georgian policy, and Soros
was in no way shy about it. In 2004, Soros, Saakashvili, and United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) administrator Mark Malloch Brown,publicly announced
their push for ”governance reforms in Georgia that would reflect the Soros
version of an “open society“. By 2005, an anti-Soros group arose, somewhat
reminiscent of America’s Tea Party Movement, to protest the “Western” influence
that had, in their view, attached their government to Soros’ puppet strings.
The “Anti-Soros Movement” also plans to oust Saakashvili’s government but in a
constitutional manner. The anti-Soros group claims that Saakashvili’s
government places instructions from Soros above the Georgian Constitution.
In October, 2010, critics accused Saakashvili of trying to “rig the political
system in his favor.” Indeed, the new constitution of Georgia was structured in
such a way as to allow Saakashvili to retain power.
It should be noted that the 2004 announcement was by no means the first joint
effort of Soros and Mark Malloch Brown. In 1993, Brown served on the Soros
Advisory Committee on Bosnia. In 2002, Soros and Brown worked together to gain
UN funding for people in countries with “bad governments”. In 2005, Brown
rented property from Soros in New York worth $120,000 a year, though his annual
salary from the UN was not much more than that: $125,000. Finally, in 2007
Brown was appointed Vice Chairman of Soros Fund Management and the OSI. This is
a cozy relationship indeed.
3. George Soros Puts A Radical in the White House
A “shining city on a hill”, the United States of America has proven to be far
less vulnerable to George Soros‘ tactics than other countries have been, but
though Soros has been unable to “fundamentally transform” America, in the words
of his candidate Barack Obama, it is clear that he played a game-changing role
in the election of this radical leftist who carried with him to the White House
a long list of Islamist and politically radical influences.
These influences
have made themselves evident throughout the Obama presidency on a wide variety
of issues, including an unConstitutional provision in the healthcare law which
could, if upheld through leftist judicial activism, be the key to opening the
door to truly socialistic wealth redistribution in America.
In December of 2006, Obama, who by then was contemplating a run for the
presidency, met in New York with billionaire financier George Soros, who
previously had hosted a fundraiser for Obama during the latter’s 2004 campaign
for the U.S. Senate.[...]
[...] On January 16, 2007, Obama announced the creation of a presidential
exploratory committee. Within hours after the announcement, Soros sent the
senator a contribution of $2,100, the maximum amount allowable under campaign
finance laws.
Later that week, the New York Daily News reported that Soros
would back Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton, whom he had supported in the
past.
At the time Obama announced the formation of his exploratory committee, he had
logged a mere 143 days of experience in the U.S. Senate (i.e., the number of
days the Senate had been in session since his swearing in on January 4, 2005).
NewsRealBlog has offered continual coverage of George Soros’ machinations in
bringing Obama to power — including the driving of a wedge between Catholics —
and in influencing policy.
There are ongoing attempts to push the Soros
blueprint, but thanks in large part to the Tea Party Movement, that agenda has
been slowed, and sometimes thwarted.
The “Anti-Soros” movement in America has
thankfully been more effective than its counterpart in Georgia.
4. George Soros: A ‘Founding Father’ of an Islamist Turkey?
In June, 2006, while in Turkey pressing for Turkish membership in the EU,
George Soros was questioned about his role in regime changes. It was already
painfully clear to many that Soros had established himself as, in the words of
Neil Clar of the NorthStar Compass, the “uncrowned king” of Eastern Europe.
Soros rejected the claim, but his influence in Turkey is manifest. OSI has been
actively studying politics and religion in Turkey since at least the 1990s and
setting forth policy recommendations on these issues. More troubling, perhaps,
is that OSI is seeking a new constitution for Turkey based on OSI values.
Can Paker, the head of OSI’s Assistance Foundation in Turkey, is also head of
the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), an organization
lobbying for Turkey’s newly elected Parliament to adopt a brand new
constitution. TESEV has commissioned a report on the “essential principles” to
be included in that constitution.
Creating a framework of consensus is of critical importance to increase
participation and legitimacy while preparing the new constitution, Ergun
Özbudun, a prominent academic on constitutional law and a member of the
commission set up by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, or
TESEV, said at a press conference Thursday in Istanbul.
The commission formed this month will prepare a report on the essential
principles of a constitution, which will also include issues like identity,
freedom of conscience, separation of powers, civil-military relations, local
governance and decentralization, TESEV Director Can Paker told the media.
Much of this may sound well and good to those of us who may take basic human
rights for granted, but there is a danger involved even beyond the danger of
allowing some Western investor to determine what’s in your Constitution. TESEV
seeks a Constitution based on pluralism.
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) President Can Paker has
called on the country’s politicians and civil society organizations to adopt a
new, democratic constitution based on participatory and pluralistic politics.
“Pluralism”, generally speaking, is the rejection of the idea that something
can be
(1) held as absolutely true and
(2) legitimately adhered to, or valued.
An example of something that is accepted as “absolutely true” in America’s
Constitution is that human rights are “unalienable”. The less a Constitution
includes absolutes in regard to human dignity, property rights, due process,
etc., the more the door is opened for communities, regions, or a whole country
to adopt systems opposed to these values through pure democratic voting.
One
example of this would be Sharia Law.
Why mention Sharia?
The Turkish newspaper Sabah has reported that OSI has shown
itself to be “pro-AKP“. The AKP is the Islamist party in Turkey.
To many observers, the [2007] election marked another milestone in the
development of Turkey’s brand of political Islam. The AKP is an offshoot of a
more rigorously Islamist party, but Erdogan and other senior party figures have
made little effort to bring personal piety into the public sphere.
That has done little to quell secularists’ wariness. Many are convinced that
the AKP harbors a hidden Islamist agenda, one now more likely to make inroads
into public policy.
“We see the danger of Sharia and fundamentalism,” said Hatice Ozbay, a
volunteer for the main secular group, the Republican People’s Party, known in
Turkish as the CHP. “We will keep on fighting that.”
Will George Soros succeed in his push for a constitution in Turkey that is
heavy on democracy but low on absolutes that protect life, freedom of worship,
property rights, etc., despite the risk of ushering in the spread of Sharia
Law? This is still an open question, but he is certainly trying.
5. Soros Funds Unrest in Egypt
In May, 2007, OSI consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, was arrested by Iranian
officials along with a colleague Haleh Esfandiari, for allegedly trying to
undermine Iran’s government according to the Soros blueprint.
Tajbakhsh said at
the time:
“The Soros centre’s job in eastern Europe is nearly finished. Its main focus
now is the Islamic world, Arab countries, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.”
This claim’s timeline, at least, is certainly correct. Having become the
uncrowned king of Eastern Europe, and working hard for a government in Turkey
that has the Soros stamp of approval, Soros’ focus clearly turned from Eastern
Europe to the Islamic world.
In April of last year, a Soros-funded organization in Egypt launched a weekly
newspaper called Wasla.
The weekly Wasla – or “The Link” – is being touted as a first for the Arab
world, with plans for articles by bloggers as a way of giving them a wider
readership.
It is published by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and
financially supported by the Open Society Institute created by Soros, said
ANHRI director Gamal Eid.
The Daily News Egypt reported that “ElBaradei Fever” was an important topic at
Wasla. Elbaradei, Muslim Brotherhood-backed, is believed to have attempted to
destroy (along with Soros) George Bush’s hopes for re-election in 2004.
The first issue of Wasla includes entries published on tahyyes.blogspot.com,
and demaghmak.blogspot.com on the “ElBaradei fever .
Elbaradei and Soros both serve on the board of directors of the International
Crisis Group, an organization that also has connections within the Democratic
Party including President Obama.
On January 18, Wasla headlined the story “Tunisia is the answer”.
The issue interconnects all uprises in the Arab world with Tunisian revolution
which overthrew Ben Ali.
On February 5, Jihad Watch offered an overview of the dangers faced here.
Reports on the role of Islamic movements in the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings
have placed considerable faith in the “secular” elements of those societies to
resist Sharia’s regressive influence on human rights. But one cannot passively
invoke as protection the institutions that Sharia will attack and destroy once
its proponents are strong enough to go on the offensive, especially not when
recalling how flimsy the veneer of a modern, secular society turned out to be
in Iraq.
I
ndeed, secularism in and of itself hasn’t a chance in resisting Sharia.
Where is the Bright Side in This?
America has a strong Constitution which, though not perfect, has enshrined
absolutes that are in accord with true human dignity and that have been
resilient even in the face of George Soros‘ attempts to “fundamentally
transform” our country.
Soros will never become the uncrowned king of America
as he has done in Eastern Europe. Pluralism may work for a time in that part of
the world, perhaps even with Soros pulling the strings, but Soros errs
considerably if he believes pluralism will hold in the face of Islam. His
agenda will be squashed like a gnat in the Islamic world.
In the long history of the world, time and time again we have witnessed that
core Judeo-Christian values which have inherent emphasis on freedom of
conscience while protecting the weakest among us and the liberties that make a
strong citizenry — though struggles have been many across the centuries — hold
strong in the face of Islam. Israel and America both continue in these values.
Secularism which focuses on pluralism and pure democracy, however, will crumple
like a daisy.
Despite the troubling events occurring around the world, much of which is due
to one seriously misguided individual, we are all truly blessed to be able to
hold onto the fact that Israel still stands as a beacon of democracy in the
Middle East, and America still remains a “shining city on a hill” — heralding
the blessings of liberty to a broken, hurting, and sometimes very angry world.
HERE
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