[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1917-E1918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE GUILT-FREE RECORD OF GEORGE SOROS
______
HON. MARK E. SOUDER
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, George Soros is one of the most
controversial figures in American politics, and I think it is important
for American families to focus on what George Soros has said about
himself, what George Soros has said about his objectives, and where
George Soros has spent his money to influence public opinion. Supreme
Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote that ``the best disinfectant
is sunshine,'' and it is in that spirit that I submit ``The Guilt-Free
Record of George Soros'' to be printed in the Congressional Record.
The Guilt-Free Record of George Soros
``I am basically there to--to make money. I cannot and do
not look at the social consequences of--of what I do.''
George Soros, commenting on being blamed for the financial
collapse of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Russia.
``He can move world financial markets simply by voicing an
opinion or destabilize a government by buying and selling its
currency . . . [W]hen he saw cracks in the Asia boom, he
began selling the currency in Thailand. Traders in Hong Kong
followed suit, triggering a financial crisis that plunged
much of Asia into a depression. (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes
interview transcript, December 20, 1998)
``I don't feel guilty. Because I'm engaged in an amoral
activity which is not meant to have anything to do with
guilt.'' George Soros, commenting on his actions in the
currency markets. (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes interview
transcript, December 20, 1998)
Soros Convicted of Insider-Trading, Ordered to Pay $2.8
million. ``George Soros's bid to overturn an insider-trading
conviction has been rejected by France's highest appeals
court, ending the billionaire's fight to erase a legal stain
on his 40-year investing career. The Court of Cassation, the
tribunal of last resort in France, ended its review of a
March 2005 judgment that Soros broke insider-trading laws
when he bought Societe Generale SA shares in 1988 with the
knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target. Soros had
been ordered to pay back 2.2 million euros ($2.8 million) in
gains.'' (Gabriele Parussini, ``Soros Insider-Trading
Conviction Upheld by Paris Appeals Court,'' Bloomberg, June
14, 2006)
Soros: ``No Sense of Guilt'' for Confiscating Property from
Jews in Nazi-occupied Budapest. ``But there was no sense that
I shouldn't be there, because that was--well, actually, in a
funny way, it's just like in markets--that if I weren't
there--of course, I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would
. . . be taking it away anyhow . . . whether I was there or
not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken
away. So the--I had no role in taking away that property. So
I had no sense of guilt.'' (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes
interview transcript, December 20, 1998)
Extended quotation from the 60 Minutes transcript follows:
``When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, George Soros'
father was a successful lawyer. He lived on an island in the
Danube and liked to commute to work in a rowboat. But knowing
there were problems ahead for the Jews, he decided to split
his family up. He bought them forged papers and he bribed a
government official to take 14-year-old George Soros in and
swear that he was his Christian godson. But survival carried
a heavy price tag. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian
Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros
accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds,
confiscating property from the Jews.
(Vintage footage of Jews walking in line; man dragging
little boy in line)
KROFT: (Voiceover) These are pictures from 1944 of what
happened to George Soros' friends and neighbors.
(Vintage footage of women and men with bags over their
shoulders walking; crowd by a train)
KROFT: (Voiceover) You're a Hungarian Jew . . .
Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
KROFT: (Voiceover) . . . who escaped the Holocaust . . .
(Vintage footage of women walking by train)
Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
(Vintage footage of people getting on train)
KROFT: (Voiceover) . . . by--by posing as a Christian.
Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Right.
(Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train;
train door closing with people in boxcar)
KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get
shipped off to the death camps.
Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that
that's when my character was made.
KROFT: In what way?
Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should
understand and--and anticipate events and when--when one is
threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it
was a--a very personal experience of evil.
KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this
protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted
godson.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.
KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of
property from the Jews.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. That's right. Yes.
KROFT: I mean, that's--that sounds like an experience that
would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many,
many years. Was it difficult?
Mr. SOROS: Not--not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child
you don't--you don't see the connection. But it was--it
created no--no problem at all.
KROFT: No feeling of guilt?
Mr. SOROS: No.
KROFT: For example that, ``I'm Jewish and here I am,
watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I
should be there.'' None of that?
Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c--I could be on the other
side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken
away. But there was no sense that I shouldn't be there,
because that was--well, actually, in a funny way, it's just
like in markets--that if I weren't there--of course, I wasn't
doing it, but somebody else would--would--would be taking it
away anyhow. And it was the--whether I was there or not, I
was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So
the--I had no role in taking away that property. So I had
no sense of guilt.'' (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes
interview transcript, December 20, 1998).
Soros Said That President Bush's Statements Remind Him of
Nazi Slogans. `` `When I hear Bush say, `You're either with
us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans.' It conjures
up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind
Hort mit (`The enemy is listening'). `My experiences under
Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me,' he said in a soft
Hungarian accent.' '' (Laura Blumenfeld, ``Soros's Deep
Pockets vs. Bush,'' The Washington Post, November 11, 2003).
Soros Is the Primary Financier of Left-Wing Causes. Tax
records of Soros' Open Society Institute show contributions
of: $4.41 million to the American Civil Liberties Union and
its state affiliates; $500,000 to the Pro-Choice Education
Project to launch a (pro-abortion rights) ``public education
and media strategy;'' $100,000 to Catholics for a Free
Choice, an allegedly Catholic group that advocates for
abortion rights; $100,000 to the Death Penalty Information
Center, an organization that works against capital
punishment; $100,000 to the Pennsylvania Coalition to Save
Lives Now ``to support needle exchange programs,'' $80,000
over three years to the Gay Straight Alliance Network, to
promote ``a traveling photo documentary exhibit by lesbian,
gay, transgender, queer and questioning youth;'' $35,000 to
the Abortion Access Project. (Jeff Johnson, ``George Soros''
$30M Welfare Check,'' CNSNews.com, April 26, 2005).
The Soros Prostitution Agenda. Open Society Institute
(OSI), a foundation funded and controlled by George Soros,
sued the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) ``over requirement that recipients of federal AIDS
grants pledge to oppose prostitution. The group would be the
second charity to challenge the policy, which AIDS activists
say stigmatizes prostitutes and makes it harder to fight the
disease.'' In June 2006, Open Society Institute published a
study entitled ``Sex Workers Health and Rights: Where is the
Funding?'' The report highlighted the role of OSI and various
Soros foundations, in financing ``a large number of sex
workers organizations'' and attacked the Bush Administration
policy for refusing to fund such groups. OSI received at
least $30 million between 1998 and 2003 from the federal
government, mostly from the State Department. (Wall Street
Journal, September 23, 2005; Open Society Institute webpages,
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/sharp/news/
usaid_20050923,: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/
focus/sharp/articles_publications/publications
where_20060719/where.pdf
Soros Called the War on Drugs a ``Fantasy'' and More
Harmful Than Drugs Themselves. ``Tilting the balance against
the drug warriors side is a short piece by Howard Fineman on
the activities of George Soros. The billionaire financier,
who calls the drug war `a fantasy' and says it does more harm
to America than drugs themselves, has spent big money pushing
his position that we should treat drug abuse as a medical
problem, not a criminal one.'' (Bill Steigerwald, ``Newsweek
Wants A Drug Debate,'' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 30,
1997).
Soros is Major Financier Behind Drug Legalization Groups.
In 1994, Soros pledged $4 million over five years to the
Lindesmith Center, a pro-marijuana legalization think-tank
that merged with the Drug Policy Foundation to form the Drug
Policy Alliance, which supports legalization of marijuana for
``medical'' purposes, repealing mandatory minimum sentences
for drug offenses, ending imprisonment for drug possession.
(Neil Hrab, ``George Soros' Social Agenda for America,''
Capital Research Center's Foundation Watch, http://
www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3770435801.pdf)
Soros Heavily Financed Drug Legalization Efforts For
Marijuana. ``And the award for best supporting role goes to
billionaire George Soros, the Daddy Warbucks of drug
legalization. He doesn't reside in either state [Arizona or
California], but he bankrolled both efforts. . . . Most money
used to buy misleading TV ads for both referenda came from
out of state. In Arizona, as of the most
[[Page E1918]]
recent reporting date (May 31), of $300,490 contributed to
support Prop. 200, only $490 came from in state. The
remaining $300,000 came from out of state, $200,000 of it
from the Drug Policy Foundation--a pet charity of George
Soros'--and the other $100,000 came directly from Soros
himself.'' (Joseph A. Califano Jr., ``Pro-Drug Campaigns'
Hidden Agenda,'' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 22, 1996)
Soros Helped Finance a Pro-Marijuana Children's Book. ``Dr.
Robert Newman, served on the Board of Directors for the Drug
Policy Foundation as early as 1997, and presently serves on
the board of directors with another minority witness, Rev.
Edwin Sanders, of the Drug Policy Alliance (the new name of
the Drug Policy Foundation since its merger with the
aforementioned Lindesmith Center). The Drug Policy Alliance
describes itself as ``the nation's leading organization
working to end the war on drugs.'' Along with its major donor
George Soros, it helped produce It's Just a Plant, a
promarijuana children's book. I will be very interested in
learning from the witnesses today what they believe U.S.
Government policy should be with respect to financing heroin
distribution, safe-injection facilities, and how-to manuals
like H Is For Heroin, published by the Harm Reduction
Coalition, and children's books on smoking marijuana,
produced with the help of the organization run by two of the
minority's witnesses today.'' (Mark Souder, opening
statement, ``Harm Reduction or Harm Maintenance: Is There
Such a Thing as Safe Drug Abuse?'', hearing before the
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human
Resources, February 16, 2005, http://www.dpna.org/resources/
current/02-16-5c.htm; http://www.justaplant.com)
Soros and Two Friends give $450,000 to ``take apart
[California's] criminal justice system one step at a time.''
``International financier George Soros and two other wealthy
donors have contributed a total of $450,000 for a November
ballot measure that would alter California's tough three
strikes sentencing law . . . The donation marks the third
time that this trio has backed criminal justice measures
in California. In 1996, the three gave money to pass
Proposition 215, which sought to legalize marijuana for
medical uses. In 2000, they supported the successful
Proposition 36, which diverts drug offenders from prison
to treatment.'' (Bill Ainsworth, ``$450,000 to help try to
weaken law,'' San Diego Union-Tribune, September 14,
2004.)
Soros Effort To Infiltrate the U.S. Conservative Movement.
``The scheduled Friday CPAC event on ``A Conservative Drug
Policy'' was to feature a mini-debate between Ethan Nadelmann
of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and Calvina Fay. The
``moderator,'' hardly unbiased, was scheduled to be Rob
Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). The Soros Open
Society Institute has given the DPA millions of dollars,
including $2.5 million in 2004 alone. MPP has been funded by
Soros as well as Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive
Corporation, who was arrested in New Zealand several years
ago after customs officers found marijuana in his luggage.
Lewis, who gave $340,000 to MPP in 2004, is also a major
funder of the ACLU.'' (Mark Souder, Congressional Record,
insertion in the record of article by Cliff Kincaid, February
8, 2006, http://reform.house.gov/CJDPHR/News/
DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=39349)
Soros Support of Lynne Stewart, Lawyer to Terrorists.
``George Soros funds many controversial projects, some
extreme projects. One quick example is the $20,000 that went
from his Open Society Institute to the Lynne Stewart Legal
Committee. Lynne Stewart was the attorney who represented the
blind sheik who was involved in the first bombing of the
World Trade Centers and was later convicted for aiding and
abetting his activities while in prison.'' (Peter Flaherty of
the National Legal and Policy Center, O'Reilly Factor, May
20, 2005, relying on Open Society Institute IRS Form 990
filings. Byron York, ``Soros Funded Stewart Defense,''
National Review, February 17, 2005.)
Soros Attacks ``War on Terror,'' Compares Bush
Administration to Nazis. Soros told an audience at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ``We are working
with a very false frame when we talk about a `war on terror,'
and yet it is universally accepted.'' He added, ``President
Bush is exploiting it even further ahead of these elections .
. . I would voice my concerns about the similarities between
this administration and the Nazis and communist regimes.''
(Monisha Bansal, ``Soros Slams Terror 'War,' Compares White
House to Nazis,'' CNSNews.com, September 15, 2006.)
Soros To Encourage a U.S./Europe Split. ``Soros, the
Hungarian-American financier who has historically invested
his billions in encouraging democracy in eastern block
countries, is turning his attention to Western Europe because
he thinks the EU is failing. Soros is to invest hundreds of
millions of dollars in foundations, the first of which will
be either in London or Paris.'' Soros: ``The practical
message for Europeans is that the world really needs a strong
European Union with a mission which is different to America's
priorities.'' (Rupert Stein, ``Soros lays foundations to
restore EU purpose,'' The Scotsman, July 15, 2006.)
____________________