But the Clarion Fund, along with the Florida Security Council, appears to have taken their stand against the democratic uprising. An email from the Security Council’s Tom Trento hints at Iranian interference in Egypt’s anti-Mubarak uprising and warns, “America Do Not Be Fooled…”
It’s unclear whether the Clarion Fund was directly involved in this email but the email states that it is an invitation to an “Iranium” (see our review on Tehran Bureau) screening on behalf of the Florida Security Council and the Clarion Fund.
Of course this is an interesting position for Clarion to take (or associate themselves with), seeing as how “Iranium”–a documentary recently produced by Clarion– gives lip service to the Iranian Green Movement and to a democratic uprising in Iran. Are we to assume that Clarion and the Florida Security Council will oppose a democratic uprising in Iran that includes any Islamists? If so, perhaps it’s time they clarify their position on democratic movements in the Middle East and which variety will receive their stamp of approval.
An excerpt from the email reads:
The Florida Security Council and the Clarion Fund
Martens points to Donors Capital Fund, a large, far-right “slush fund,” which shows a $17,778,600 grant issued to the Clarion Fund in its most recent 990 (PDF). The source of the Donors Capital Fund’s grant to the Clarion Fund is not specified.
While Marten rightfully focuses on the large grant to the Clarion Fund, another group, Security Research Associates, shows up in the 990 as well. Security Research Associates, an organization headed by Tom Trento, a former pro-life activist who assisted the Clarion Fund in the distribution of Obsession, received $148,892 from the Donors Capital Fund in 2008.
Trento—on his now defunct watchobsession.org website—offered ‘helpful’ tips in the “Good Muslim vs. Bad Muslim” four page pamphlet on how to tell if a Muslim is of the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ variety. Trento also awarded Geert Wilders, the notoriously Islamophobic Dutch politician, the “International Freedom of Speech Award”.
It looks like Trento’s assistance in distributing the Obsession DVDs was financed, at least in part, by the same funding sources that bankrolled the Clarion Fund.
The Clarion Fund’s latest film, Iranium, is “coming soon to DVD.” According to the film’s website, it is intended to shed light on how “the Iranian regime has and continues to threaten the United States, Europe and the world at large.”
It will be interesting to track if Donors Capital Fund bankrolls the production and distribution of Iranium.
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