Vets For Freedom Won't Reveal Donors

[babylonsister]

Vets For Freedom Won't Reveal Donors
Sam Stein
July 9, 2008 01:14 PM


The issue-advocacy group Vets for Freedom officially launched a $1.5 million ad campaign on Wednesday, touting of the Iraq surge policy and pushing a not-so-subtle dig at Barack Obama.

"We changed strategy in Iraq, and the surged worked," says the spot, a spliced testimony of more than a dozen veterans. "Now that is change you can believe in."

And yet, despite hitting the airwaves in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, and looking to expand even further, the group refused to reveal exactly who was funding its effort, citing no legal obligation to do so as a 501c4.

"I don't want to have to print out names of thousands of Americans for everyone to dish through," said Pete Hegseth, executive director for Vets for Freedom, "nor have they signed on saying this is something we have to disclose."

Hegseth insisted that the group was funded by thousands of backers, primarily through the Internet. Another official posited that groups like Vets for Freedom never offer such levels of financial disclosure. But the refusal of VFF divulge any details including, for example, the size of the largest donation, will undoubtedly fuel speculation that the organization is operating as a front for McCain-backing conservative financiers.

There is already concern within Democrat circles that like-minded advocacy organizations will be the central actors in GOP attacks. As evidence, they note several ties between Vets for Freedom and the McCain campaign. Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham both hold chairs with the Arizona Republican's candidacy and served on VFF's board of advisers before stepping down due to the campaign's conflict of interest policy.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/09/vets-for-freedom-wont-rev_n_111647.html

[dmosh42]

1. Probably propped up by a bunch of draft-dodgers from the...

Vietnam era. Cheney's buddies!

[BOSSHOG]

2. Why is it

that I am a patriotic veteran who is FOR FREEDOM and yet would never even consider joining that group? I guess no habeas corpus and spying on citizens are all about freedom to some vets.

[Fuzz]

3. I saw a spokesperson of theirs last night on Hardball.

He wouldn't answer Tweety's question and was really pissing off Tweety.

[atreides1]

4. I've seen the spots

What strikes me as funny, is that for a group of "Gung-Ho" types, one would think that they would be going back over, until "Victory" is achieved.

[mloutre]

5. Of course they won't, that's the whole point of having their org set up as a 501(c)4

Donations to 501(c)4 orgs aren't tax-deductible -- yeah, right, like those uber-rich right-wing bastids give a flying flock about that, they hide all their big fat assets from the IRS anyway -- but that also means said orgs and donors don't have to disclose squiddly-dot to anybody about what they're up to behind the scenes.

Welcome to the big wide world of McCain-derived campaign finance "reforms"...

[babylonsister]

6. IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS CALL FOR VETS FOR FREEDOM TO PULL NEW TELEVISION AD

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1570

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS CALL FOR VETS FOR FREEDOM TO PULL NEW TELEVISION AD

WASHINGTON - Today, the largest group of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, VoteVets.org, called on the pro-Bush/McCain group Vets for Freedom to stand in support of the Iraqi government, and not air advertisements planned for the coming months that call for an indefinite military presence in Iraq.

This week, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on the United States to leave Iraq, or set a firm timetable for redeployment from Iraq.

Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chair of VoteVets.org said:

"It is wholly inappropriate for Vets for Freedom to be running an advertisement that advocates staying in Iraq indefinitely, given Prime Minister Maliki's request this week that the U.S. set a firm timetable to redeploy our troops. Our nation must stand firm and in lockstep to support the sovereign democratic government of Iraq, and unfortunately an ad like this only tells the Iraqis that our nation is divided on whether to support Iraq's government.

"We agree with John McCain of 2004, who said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave or set a timetable to leave, we would do so. It's unfortunate, and indeed dangerous, that Senator McCain has flip-flopped on that position, and disappointing that Vets for Freedom would support that flip-flop from a sensible policy with an ad like this.

"In the end, we fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom - emphasis on Freedom. To advocate the overruling of Prime Minister Maliki's request would be to retreat from the very thing we said we were fighting for."

[gratuitous]

7. Oh yeah - "thousands" of donors

Wotta laugh. They've got probably 10 donors and about a thousand dupes who will throw five bucks at anything with the word "veteran" or "freedom" in its organizational name.

I say we just start calling it a Limbaugh front organization, or an offshoot of Rupert Murdoch. Or the plaything of the Hunt family in Texas. Let 'em deny it, and we'll print the denial and move onto another overrich Republican fascist as the bankroller of this hate group. There just aren't that many of them, and sooner or later (probably much sooner than later), we'll tap the right one.

[babylonsister]

8. I say we waterboard Lieberman to see what he knows. nt

[gratuitous]

9. I'm not sure that's a solution to everything

But it might be worth trying, if only to eliminate it as a possible solution. Dick "1%" Cheney would surely approve.