Matt Yglesias

19 Responses to “US Council for World Freedom”

1. Garuda Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 10:56 am

   The Council was a Somoza backer. I believe there was some tie to drug trafficking as well. The Hand Bank kind of stuff, but you’d have to talk to Peter Dale Scott about it — he knows.

2. El Cid Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:02 am

   I thought all the Republicans from that era were still proud of their death-squad-backing days. Downright nostalgic for it, even.

   I think it’s also why they freak out anytime anyone seriously mentions the government-linked right wing narco-paramilitary death squads in Colombia, instead of just focusing on the leftist guerrilla lunatics, who only run a tiny fraction of the drug trade the right wing narcoparas do.

3. Liberal of Doubt Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:14 am

   This is the essential political problem with John McCain suddenly deciding to focus on Barack Obama’s so-called “questionable associations.” Namely, anyone with a career as long as John McCain surely knows some questionable people, and legitimate charges of hypocrisy aren’t particularly hard to make.

4. Peter K. Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:22 am

   With the election less than a month away, Intrade has Obama up 69-31, polls have him up by more than the margin of error. Where’s Petey? Looking forward to the mea culpas by Krugman, Fallows, etc, who thought Obama’s blackness would cause him to lose the election. Looking forward to the partying.

5. Nara Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:36 am

   Why is the Obama campaign not talking abut this ? What about the Alaska independence party and the “witch doctor” of Sarah “I am proud to be stupid” Palin.

6. Peter K. Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am

   Sorry, I meant John Judis, not Fallows. Krugman and Judis, despite being pretty smart, were both convinced Obama would lose and it was naive for people to back him. Wrong.

7. Jeet Heer Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:46 am

   About Krugman and Judis: I thought they were wrong at the time and still do. But let’s wait for the election to be over before we decide who was right and wrong. The fact is, if McCain wins, race will have played a factor. And given American history, Krugman and Judis had good reasons to worry about Obama’s electibility. I’m glad the Dem’s took the risk and choose Obama but let’s face it, it was a risk. (Although Petey’s choice, John Edwards, would have been a complete disaster.)

8. John Gorenfeld Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:49 am

   Hey Matt, just wanted to mention that there’s a trove of stuff about the international creepiness of the WACL in my book about Washington Times publisher Sun Myung Moon.

9. Ethel-To-Tilly Says:
   October 7th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

   I don’t remember McCain getting bent out of shape about the Bush Administration appointments of Iran-Contra criminals and death squad enablers Elliot Abrams, John Negropointe and Otto Reich to high-ranking positions. Hypocrisy.

10. Rich Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    What is it about naval officers and Nazism?

11. Garuda Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Singlaub’s group was the U.S. Chapter of the World Anti-Communist League. You have to go to the footnotes for this one:

    “North also refers to a ‘United Brands grant to Andy Messing,’ a key organizer of Contra support in the field and in Congress. Messing was an ally of Contra fundraiser John Singlaub, whose headquarters for the U.S. Council for World Freedom and the World Anti-Communist League was in Scottsdale, Arizona, next door to Charles Keating’s company, American Continental, a former Lindner subsidiary. The hangers at Lindner’s Ocean Reef Club were used for drug smuggling by the convicted trafficker Jack DeVoe who had listed as his sponsor for membership there Richard Nixon’s friend Bebe Rebozo…”

    Whoa baby. Oliver North, Charles Keating, Bebe Rebozo. And there’s more.

12. Njorl Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Sorry, I meant John Judis, not Fallows. Krugman and Judis, despite being pretty smart, were both convinced Obama would lose and it was naive for people to back him. Wrong.

    A lot of people my age and older (mid 40s+) are very surprised. We see a lot of closet racism among our age group – people who spout racist remarks when only white people are around. I think we projected that onto younger people and assumed about the same rate of it in them. I am quite glad to have been wrong about this.

13. DukeJ Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 3:32 pm

    Singlaub’s name came up quite a bit in conjunction with Iran-Contra

14. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    Sounds like their agenda was much like “The Family”, the right wing Christian group that Hillary Clinton belongs to, which has connections with much the same groups of death squad leaders and dictators.

    So if we’d run Hillary instead of Obama, McCain and Hillary could have traded barbs about whose affiliations were worse.

15. jdw Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    What Duke says – Singlaub was all over IranContra as Ollie was going “off the books” in setting up his little Op.

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