Exposing the Exposé on ‘I am a Ukrainian’

THIS IS NOT A SCAM

John R. Houk

© March 6, 2014

On March 1^st I posted the video “I am a Ukrainian” on my blogs. The video was actually posted circa February 10, 2014. The video is a close-up of a Ukrainian gal that is pleasant on the eyes sharing with the world her feelings on the corruption that has existed in Ukraine with its government and as such is the reason for Ukrainians to flow to a public square – Maidan – in Kiev. The gal is identified only as Yulia and she implores for the video to go viral in the USA for Americans to write their Congressmen to show support for Ukraine. This all happened before Russia invaded the Crimea (Western) portion of Ukraine. I was glad to participate with many others to have the video go viral. I might add that Yulia asks for NO money.

In the comment section of this video a Google+ friend – Black Bear – left this comment on my SlantRight 2.0 blog:

Good find. It was exposed as some kind of scum:  http://youtu.be/-OBeYg8KdtY

I was a bit disturbed about someone calling the “I am a Ukrainian” video scum.  In hindsight I think Black Bear’s comment was something we all do; i.e. comment quickly without checking our spelling.  I suspect “scum” was supposed to be “scam”. So I clicked the Youtube link which took me to a Prison Planet/Infowars produced video:

VIDEO: 'I am a Ukrainian' Video Exposed As Kony-Style Scam

Published by PrisonPlanetLive

Published on February 20, 2014

The video is meant to push the idea that the Ukrainian revolt is grass roots, but its origins can be traced back to the U.S. State Department.

Original 'I am a Ukrainian' video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvds2A...

FULL STORY with links and documentation: http://www.infowars.com/exposed-ukrai...

NEW VIDEO: Hidden Motives Behind the Ukraine-Russia Conflict -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFpKw...

I hadn’t actually clicked the “FULL STORY” link as yet. From memory I noted that the narration indicated this was a one-sided propaganda produced by the U.S. State Department through Larry Diamond a political promoter of Democratic initiatives globally (á la association to Jimmy Carter influenced NGOs). I was more disturbed so I wrote Justin Smith who gave me the hat tip to the video and who I also had previously posted an essay based on interviews with Ukrainian activists. I had queried if he knew anything about accusations that “I am a Ukrainian” is a hoax. He responded:

This is indeed a powerful statement. But, unbelievably, I've been catch ‘in a little heat from some of my friends, who have mistakenly taken my support for these Ukrainian activists as support of the UN, EU and IMF, which nothing could be farther from the truth.

Support of the Ukrainian protesters is supporting a government that will hopefully turn away from the corruption of past Ukrainian governments. I don't necessarily think a strong tie of any sort with the EU is in the best interest of Ukraine at the moment, and like I've told them....nothing is in concrete at the moment.

A similar deal fell through last year, because the details could not be agreed upon with the IMF. But really, al the Ukraine should be looking for at the moment is a short term arrangement with very limited requirements from them in the future, and nothing that will further damage their sovereignty.

If they can really move away from corrupt leadership, that in and of itself will work wonders for their economy, inasmuch as, so much of the national treasury will not be stolen in the manner in which Vanukovych walked away with $40 million. Then the rest, while not easy, will be less difficult as they revamp business and government practices so that the nation and every individual is able to thrive...

In the end, a limited relationship with the EU, that draws Ukraine closer to the West, is more desired, than watching Ukraine pulled back into a Soviet-style sphere under Putin's proposed Eurasian Union (EAU)... (Justin Smith via email circa 3/1/14)

In other words I believe Justin knew nothing of any hoax but knows the situation is critical for the rule of law and Liberty in Ukraine.

The Infowars link provides the appearance of documentation:

Exposed: Ukrainian ‘Protesters’ Backed by Kony 2012-Style Scam

By Paul Joseph Watson

February 20, 2014

Infowars.com

As they seize weapons, take over government buildings and fire on media outlets, the US-backed Ukrainian protesters are being afforded legitimacy with the aid of a Kony 2012-style viral video which triumphs the grass roots nature of the demonstrations yet is linked to shadowy NGOs that have been directly involved in staging phony ‘color revolutions’ in the past.

Infowars Link to ‘I am a Ukrainian’

The video, entitled I am a Ukrainian, already has over 3 million views. It features an attractive woman insistently claiming that the Ukrainian uprising is solely about freedom and democracy.

The video is typically glib and simplified emotional propaganda which purports to explain that “there is only one reason” behind the protests in Ukraine, a bald faced lie which ignores the multi-faceted geopolitical factors behind the uprising, which center on the tug of war between the United States, the EU and Russia.

The woman encourages viewers to “help us only by telling this story….only by sharing this video,” thereby framing the debate around the naive narrative that the crisis is solely about Ukrainians wanting “freedom,” and in essence blacklisting the real reasons behind the western-instigated revolt, which focus on the geopolitical isolation of Russia.

The origins of the video are not quite as ‘grass roots’ as is portrayed. The clip was produced by the team behind A Whisper to a Roar, a documentary about the “fight for democracy” all over the world, which was funded by Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco. The “inspiration” behind the documentary was none other than Larry Diamond, a Council on Foreign Relations member. The Council on Foreign Relations is considered to be America’s “most influential foreign-policy think tank” and has deep connections with the U.S. State Department.

Diamond has also worked closely with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The National Endowment for Democracy is considered to be the CIA’s “civilian arm” and has been deeply embroiled in innumerable instigated uprisings, attempted coups and acts of neo-colonial regime change since its creation in 1983, including the contrived 2004 “Orange Revolution” that brought US puppet Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine.

Larry Diamond also played an instrumental role in the Arab Spring under the auspices of the NED, a series of supposedly grass roots revolts that were in fact organized and managed by some of the most powerful western institutions on the planet.

Diamond’s connection to the viral “I am a Ukrainian” video clearly suggests that the clip is a crude effort to convince an unthinking public that the Ukrainian uprising is completely organic and is not being instigated by western powers, when the opposite is in fact the case. The clip is reminiscent of the Kony 2012 scam, where a viral video utilized simplified propaganda and emotional manipulation to convince millions of people of the necessity of U.S. military involvement in Africa.

In a Huffington Post interview, the creator of the video admits that he was in Ukraine “preparing a film on democracy” before the protests even started.

Providing absolute confirmation that the video is a carefully thought out public relations stunt, the woman in the video was immediately invited to appear on CNN with Anderson Cooper in a segment that will be broadcast tonight. Cooper and CNN aggressively pushed the Kony 2012 hoax until it fell apart when one of the directors had a public breakdown. Cooper was also heavily involved in promoting the fake “Syria Danny” hoax that relied on staged footage to push for U.S. military intervention in Syria.

With clear evidence of protesters being paid amidst accusations that they were armed by the United States, the narrative behind the Ukraine crisis is clearly more complex than a mere grass roots revolt against corruption. The pro-EU protesters are bizarrely seeking closer ties with a European Union infamous for its institutionalized corruption, malfeasance which costs almost the same each year as Ukraine’s entire GDP.

Many of the activists taking over government buildings in Kiev are also from the Spilna Sprava group, which is an organization funded and supported by billionaire globalist George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

The stage was set for the Ukraine revolt to become violent in December when US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland announced that the U.S. would invest $5 billion in order to help Ukrainians achieve “a good form of government.” The true nature of that government was revealed earlier this month when leaked phone conversations emerged of Nuland conspiring with US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt to pick Ukraine’s future puppet leaders, making good on John McCain’s vow to neutralize Russian influence.

Millions of people will never know the truth behind the Ukraine uprising because it is somewhat more complex than an attractive girl making glib statements about freedom and democracy for 2 minutes on a YouTube video. This is how propaganda works – the simpler the better. The video below provides a wider overview of the true agenda behind the crisis.

Infowars link to their video: The Truth About The Ukraine Crisis (Exposed: Ukrainian ‘Protesters’ Backed by Kony 2012-Style Scam; By Paul Joseph Watson; Infowars.com; 2/20/14)

I have read the links documenting the suppositions of this Infowars article. I have to tell you the used by Paul Joseph Watson are spoon fed from either the Russian propaganda machine or by websites whose background is typically hate-America.

One rings true in the article is that Ukraine’s political situation is complicated. The majority of the nation are native Ukrainian speaking people; however the western part of Ukraine which the news calls Crimea are primarily Russian speaking people. The speaking people exist in Ukraine through years of the former Soviet Union – particularly Stalin – utilizing a Russification campaign which included forbidding the teaching of the Ukraine language and the stamping out of the Eastern Rite but Papacy loyal Ukrainian Church. There are similarities between Ukrainian and Russian languages in that they both are Slavic. The differences lie in influential developments:

Slavic populations living in Eastern Europe are descended from the Indo-European ethnic and linguistic branch. They are classified into 3 groups: the West Slavic including Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Slovaks, the East Slavic comprising Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians and the South Slavic including Bulgarians, Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Slovenes. …

Language

Ukrainian is an East Slavic language using a Cyrillic alphabet and sharing vocabulary with fellow Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish and Slovak. Throughout its turbulent history the Ukrainian people have tried to preserve their linguistic and ethnic identity resisting the coercive means of empires it formed a part of. …

Culture

Ukrainian culture is a mixture of Christian principles and Cossack customs highly valued and preserved over the centuries. … Zaporozhian Cossacks had a distinctive influence in shaping Ukrainian identity in areas as folk music, dance, architecture, food and customs. To honor Cossack contribution the Ukrainian Great Coat of Arms features a Zaporozhian Cossack. … Russian culture is a result of a mixture of influences: from pagan tribe customs to Christian beliefs, from Turkish to Scandinavian contributions.

Summary

o   Ukrainian and Russian share the same East Slavic language pool and due to this their vocabularies are quite similar.

o   Ukrainian culture has a clear Cossack and Christian influences, while Russian culture is a result of native pagan as well as Christian roots mixed with Turkish and Scandinavian influences.

… (Ukrainian vs. Russian: Basic Differences; By reComparison Contributor; reComparison.com; © 2014 reComparison)

Now I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some money going to the protestors in some fashion BUT it was not to finance snipers to shoot at both corrupt government controlled police and protestors. In one of the sources used by author Watson relates how Putin encouraged currently deposed Yanukovich to use force to disperse the protestors. The reality is after Yanukovich used force and actually began using police brutality and shootings resulted in protestor deaths THEN the more right wing protestors initially shunned by other protest factions welcomed their aid in confronting the (Berkut) police.

A leaked recording has emerged between an Estonian diplomat and an EU diplomat in which a conversation agrees with the Russia Today (RT - Putin Mouthpiece available in English) coverage that both Maidan protesters and Berkut police were shot at by members of the Ukrainian Right Wing to frame ousted President Yanukovich for the deaths. Since indeed the Ukrainian Parliament dumped Yanukovich a lot credence was given to the Russian propaganda and now going viral on the web is the appearance of a non-Russian Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet telling High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Police Catherine Ashton that he heard reports the snipers hired by Maidan leaders.

Youtube audio of conversion complete elevator music: Breaking: Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton (Hat Tip: Market Oracle)

Frankly I am a bit surprised that so many are falling for the Maidan kills its own to frame Yanukovich and it is all planned by the USA (State Dept. and CIA) and EU political sources. Does anyone else notice the framework of manipulation? I am not saying U.S. and EU sources have not been involved in propping up Maidan protest leadership because after all, Putin has been putting on the swag in recent years to reassert regional Russian prerogatives as a big player on the world stage again. Anyone that has a cursory historical memory of the USA (and NATO formed to protect Europe) vs. USSR Cold War back door espionage to peddle Liberty vs. Communism cannot possibly trust Putin motives. Check out this Cliff Kinkaid perspective:

Russian Propaganda Operations Target the U.S.

By Cliff Kincaid

February 26, 2014

Accuracy in the Media

The Moscow-funded propaganda channel, Russia Today (RT), is featuring a Ron Paul column titled “Leave Ukraine alone!,” even while Russia threatens an invasion of the sovereign nation and former Soviet republic. “The usual interventionists in the US have long meddled in the internal affairs of Ukraine,” Paul says, promoting the Kremlin line to an American audience.

Using an American to reinforce a policy favored by Moscow is a technique from old Soviet propaganda operations.

This isn’t the first time the pro-Putin network, which is available in English in the U.S. on the Comcast and Time Warner Cable systems, has highlighted the former Congressman’s “libertarian,” or “non-interventionist,” views benefiting Russia. It also recently featured his petition calling for clemency for Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contract employee who stole classified documents and leaked them to America’s enemies. Snowden is under the control in Russia of the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency.

Direct attacks on the freedom fighters in Ukraine continue to come from the Alex Jones’ Infowars.com website, which supported the Russians against Georgia back in 2008, and is now siding with the Russians against the Ukrainians. The show is syndicated by the Genesis Communication Network on over 60 AM and FM radio stations across the United States, and claims a large Internet based audience.

An Alex Jones writer named Kurt Nimmo has said that those struggling for independence from Russia may well replace the Lenin statues being toppled “with statues of the man who worked behind the scenes to overthrow the country’s democratically elected government—billionaire globalist George Soros.”

The so-called “democratically elected” government opened fire on peaceful protesters and had a plan to blame more violence on the freedom fighters. The Financial Times reported that captured documents demonstrated that “The operation would have used as a pretext an alleged plot by Right Sector, a radical wing of the protests, to engage in terrorist acts, setting off bombs at government buildings.” Documents also showed that snipers who killed dozens of protesters came from Ukraine’s “Omega” special forces.

The smear of the protesters as Soros puppets, from the Alex Jones crowd, is a deliberate exaggeration designed to take the focus away from the Obama administration’s failure to confront Russia’s designs on the region. As AIM has reported, Soros and his foundations are involved in literally dozens of countries around the world, including Ukraine, but there is no evidence he has had anything to do with the anti-communist revolution in the country. In fact, Soros has called capitalism the major “threat” to the world today and has been soft on socialist and communist regimes.

… READ THE REST

So noted Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones and his web network are in the tank to support the Russian line of thinking. And to make the Alex Jones network more believable there is an attempt to connect the nefarious Leftist George Soros with the pro-EU Ukrainians to reel in Conservatives like me. I got to tell ya, this sounds like a much better scenario than calling the Maidan protesters Western puppets under the direction of the USA and the EU. If the USA and the EU are actually making contact with the Maidan leadership it is more likely by invitation to keep the Russian megalomaniac Vladimir Putin from rebuilding a new Soviet empire under the auspices of a nationalistic Russian empire.

I should end this discussion here but I have to poke more stabs at Alex Jones.

Allow me to return to the Infowars article in which the author Watson calls the ‘I am a Ukrainian’ video a “Kony 2012-Style Scam”. I discovered I was ignorant of the reference Kony 2012 scam. I just assumed Watson was using Kony as in the falsehood accusation of phony kony. He was not.

Watson was referring to an Internet fund raiser called Kony 2012 in which an organization called the Invisible Children was trying to put together funding to prevent Joseph Kony from continuing a genocide in Uganda. The Prison Planet/Infowars network takes credit for being a prime mover of exposing a hoax or a scam. However I found a fairly concise website that places the reasoning as to why the Kony 2012 video raising awareness about Joseph Kony atrocities a good place for info.

There is no doubt that Joseph Kony is a horribly cruel man. If you are on facebook or twitter, you have surely seen by now a lot of your friends becoming so called “activists” after watching a YouTube video about “Kony 2012″ and the Invisible Children organization. Even Rihanna has announced that she will be helping to “fight the cause” by supporting the organization and helping them put together a new video.

What’s disturbing about all of this is that nobody is fact checking or doing any research on the subject – they are simply buying into everything the video preaches without knowing anything else about the topic!  The situation is much more complex than the video alludes to and the organization itself is very shady at best. Check out information on the issue and organization that we put together below:

THE QUICK RUNDOWN

The issue:

-The LRA is only 250 soldiers strong at this point.

-The LRA hasn’t been in Uganda since 2006.

-Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting.

-US Africa Command has been trying to stop Kony for years, which only results in failure and retaliation from Kony.

-To get to Kony you’d have to ultimately kill some of his army…which consists of children soldiers…..

Invisible Children:

-Only 32% of money raised went to direct services (if you support the issue you may want to choose a more worthwhile charity).

-Their accountability and transparency is a 2 out of 4 stars on charity navigator.

-The group is in favor of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.

- Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.”

…

IN DEPTH

The organization behind Kony 2012 — Invisible Children Inc. — is an extremely shady nonprofit that has been called “misleading,” “naive,” and “dangerous” by a Yale political science professor, and has been accused by Foreign Affairs of “manipulat[ing] facts for strategic purposes.” They have also been criticized by the Better Business Bureau for refusing to provide information necessary to determine if IC meets the Bureau’s standards.

Additionally, IC has a low two-star rating in accountability from Charity Navigator because they won’t let their financials be independently audited. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.

By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known.

And as far as what they do with that money:

The group is in favor of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. At the top of this article is a photo [Blog Editor: Kony 2012 Exposed photo] of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.

… READ THE REST (The Kony 2012 Scam And Why You Should STOP Supporting ‘Invisible Children’; By ADMIN; KeepItTrill.com; 3/8/12)

So here’s thing. I believe a better word other than scam or hoax is ‘fraud’. Apparently the a legal – but shady – NGO was set up that did not document their donation revenue enough to probably make the IRS happy, used a significant amount of the donations for administration costs (i.e. paid themselves) and supported disreputable military and paramilitary organizations for their published goal to end Joseph Kony. AND as KeepItTrill.com mentions Joseph Kony is not even operating in Uganda any longer.

The latest info I could find on Joseph Kony in my brief but definitely not extensive search is the genocidal warlord that includes child soldiers is operating in the unstable Central African Republic. The by-line is “Will Genocidal Warlord Joseph Kony Surrender?” It is dated 11/21/2013. The author of the article came to the conclusion that CAF strongman was lying to make himself look good and that Kony was not about to surrender – you can check it out.

The Kony 2012 video short was a well-made video production along with the digital buzzes and whistles. I suspect this is a part of the reference to the Infowars author Watson belief that the “I am a Ukrainian” video was not a mere grassroots spur of the moment production. Because there was indeed some professionalism involved in making the video but not exactly like Paul Joseph Watson would have you believe in his so-called exposé.

VIDEO: The Making Of "I Am A Ukrainian": We Interview The Man Who Created the Video

Published by ExpressionTV

Published on Feb 24, 2014

On February 12th, Danielle Ryan posted an article entitled "I Am A Ukrainian, This Needs To Go Viral." Though it was dormant for a few days it eventually did go viral as the unrest in Kiev was peaking.

On Thought Catalog alone, the video accumulated more than 3 million hits and over a quarter of a million Facebook shares. The video has now been seen by nearly 7 million people.

Much has been said in the media regarding the video including the questions "who is Yulia" and "who made the video." We reached out to Emmy Award winner Ben Moses, the man who filmed, edited, and posted "I Am A Ukrainian" to ask him questions about how the idea came about, what he had hoped to accomplish, and what he sees in the future for Ukraine.

____________

ExpressionTV is brought to you by Thought Catalog
www.thoughtcatalog.com
www.expr.tv (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpB1PJy-poKJ4HHMuC3Qe2Q)

You can read more at FilmMakerMagazine.com.

“I am a Ukrainian” was indeed made by Yulia and the professional video-digital filmmaker Ben Moses took the footage and edited it to what over 7 MILLION people has viewed as of the last time I checked.

CTV News Marci Ien conducts a telephone interview with the actual Yulia out of Canada. Her English is a bit more broken in the video which leads me to believe Yulia practiced a bit to get the footage down right in “I am a Ukrainian”. You watch the interview but I don’t know how to do a direct link or embed the CTV News piece so you will have to go the Canadian webpage to watch it. Below is some news text that is informative about the interview:

'I am a Ukrainian' video goes viral in bid to shine light on protests

By CTVNews.ca Staff

Published: February 20, 2014 9:52AM EST

CTV News

The woman behind the YouTube video “I am a Ukrainian” says she decided to speak out after long-simmering protests in her homeland turned deadly.

“This need of attracting attention to our big problem, to our big tragedy was my main motivation to make this video,” the woman, known only as “Yulia,” told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday.

Ukrainians have been protesting since November, demanding their government foster closer ties with the European Union.

Since the video was released on Feb. 10, as protests turned deadly in Ukraine, it has been viewed more than 3 million times.

“I couldn’t expect that it would grab so much attention because it’s bad circumstances, it’s a tragedy,” she said. “But I’m happy we’ll heal.”

The haunting video tells the story of a country struggling under the weight of oppression and of its people who dream of freedom.

“We have this freedom inside our hearts, we have this freedom in our minds, and now I ask you to build this freedom in our country,” Yulia says in the clip. “You can help us only by telling this story to your friends, only be sharing this video, please share it, speak to your friends, speak to your family, speak to your government and show that you support us.”

Signs of progress, following the release of protesters on Feb. 16, quickly evaporated when at least 26 were killed and hundreds more injured in clashes Wednesday. Then, hours after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced a truce with opposition leaders, fierce, deadly clashes erupted once again.

But Yulia says she hopes the video will bring attention to the ongoing violence in Ukraine.

“I hope it will work, I hope it will save at least someone,” she said.

I am not exactly sure of Infowars author Watson involves Larry Diamond as some kind of nefarious conspiracy to turn Ukraine into an USA/EU puppet state. I am running out of gas here so I’ll try to see the Prison Planet/Infowars logic.

Watson calls Diamond a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Frankly when I did a cursory search of this the closest I could find is that Diamond is a contributor to the political magazine Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs is owned by the CFR. When I checked out the CFR membership roster, if Diamond is a member he is not prominent enough to be on the list. I realize the CFR ranks up there in Conspiracy Theories (This ought to keep you busy) with the Bilderbergers, Illuminati, Round Table, Bohemian Grove, Free Masons, Trilateral Commission, U.N. Agenda 21, Club of Rome and so on. Nonetheless, Larry Diamond seems to have a more plausible connection to Libertarian affinities like the Hoover Institution.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where he directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Diamond also serves as the Peter E. Haas Faculty Co-Director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and also serves as Senior Consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. During 2002-3, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has also advised and lectured to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other governmental and nongovernmental agencies. His 2005 book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, was one of the first books to critically analyze America's postwar engagement in Iraq.

His latest book, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World (Times Books, 2008), explores the … READ THE REST (Larry Diamond - senior fellow; Hoover Institution)

Diamond appears to concentrate on the Hoover Institution being a senior fellow; however the publication he founded – Journal of Democracy – gravitates more toward (Jimmy) Carter Left leaning Dem Party concerns. The Journal of Democracy is part of a literary extension of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which is a Federally funded organization that promotes Democracy via a Left slant. Officially NED is supposed to be officially non-partisan; however a quick look at its Board of Directors – for me – throws that notion out the window:

NED's long-serving president (since April 30, 1984^[8]) is Carl Gershman, former Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations and former Executive Director of Social Democrats USA.^[9]

The Endowment's board includes a wide range of people who have previously held positions in Congress such as former Congressmen Richard Gephardt and Martin Frost; Senator Norm Coleman, and U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks. As well as Professors of Political Science and International Affairs, Andrew Nathan of Columbia University and Francis Fukuyama and Azir Nafisi of Johns Hopkins SAIS. Business tycoons Marilyn Nelson of Carlson and Ken Duberstein of the Duberstien (sic) Group also are members of the board.

The link Wikipedia link to the Social Democrats USA says it all about NED.

Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco seems to have the Carter-Dem-Left Wing connection:

Prince Moulay Hicham is Director of the Foundation. He is the grandson of the late King Mohammed V, the father of the modern, independent nation of Morocco; the son of the late Prince Moulay Abdallah, Mohammed V's younger son; the nephew of the late King Hassan II; and the cousin of Mohammed VI, the present King of Morocco

…

Prince Moulay Hicham is currently a Visiting Researcher at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, and serves on the Advisory Board of the University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Outside academia, he pursues humanitarian and environmental initiatives worldwide. In 1995, he assisted Ambassador Juan Somavia in organizing the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen. In 2000, he served as Principal Officer for Community Affairs with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

With the US-based Carter Center, he served as international observer in special delegations during elections in Palestine in 1996 and 2006, and in Nigeria in 2000.  (Prince Moulay Hicham; Moulay Hicham Foundation)

Infowars Watson uses this Carter connection because of the Foundation’s funding association with the website A Whisper to a Roar. Ben Moses was involved in making documentary with a Carteresque slant on democracy Left Wing style. It is the Whisper Roar Youtube Channel that “I am a Ukrainian” is found.

As far as I am concerned Infowars author Watson is using Larry Diamond as a boogeyman smokescreen pertaining to the actual preparation of “I am a Ukrainian”.  I am going to trust that Ben Moses worked Yulia Marushevska and cameramen Graham Mitchell without charge and out of the bottom of his heart to get a message that Ukrainians are weary of corruption by those who govern them and by the Russians that threaten them.

JRH 3/6/14

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