Who funds the biggest US Think Tanks?
The Department of Defence, foreign governments and military contractors: "If think tanks are reliant on Pentagon contractors and there is no counterbalancing voice, it can lead to an entire sector singing in chorus for things that will benefit Pentagon contractors — most notably, ever-increasing defense budgets and foreign conflicts."

- Big Ideas and Big Money: Think Tank Funding in America (2025)
quincyinst.org/research/big-i… "Since 2019, top Pentagon contractors have contributed more than $34.7 million to the 50 U.S. think tanks included in this study."
quincyinst.org/research/big-i…

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, "Internews Network" (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and "training” over 9000 journalists (2023 figures). IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.

The operation claims “offices” in over 30 countries, including main offices in US, London, Paris and regional HQs in Kiev, Bangkok and Nairobi. It is headed up by Jeanne Bourgault, who pays herself $451k a year. Bourgault worked out of the US embassy in Moscow during the early 1990s, where she was in charge of a $250m budget, and in other revolts or conflicts at critical times, before formally rotating out of six years at USAID to IN.

Bourgault’s IN bio and those of its other key people and board members have been recently scrubbed from its website but remain accessible at archive.org. Records show the board being co-chaired by Democrat securocrat Richard J. Kessler and Simone Otus Coxe, wife of NVIDIA billionaire Trench Coxe, both major Democratic donors. In 2023, supported by Hillary Clinton, Bourgault launched a $10m IN fund at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The IN page showing a picture of Bourgault at the CGI has also been deleted.

IN has at least six captive subsidiaries under unrelated names including one based out of the Cayman Islands. Since 2008, when electronic records begin, more than 95% of IN's budget has been supplied by the US government (thread follows)

Some questions for @realDonaldTrump:

1. How will you handle the so-called deep state “wolves in MAGA hats” circling your transition team, posing as MAGA to obtain powerful positions in a prospective Trump administration? After all, personnel is policy. 2. In your previous administration, you appointed figures like Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, William Barr (former CIA), Robert O’Brien, Nikki Haley, and Elliott Abrams, who often opposed your “America First” rhetoric, especially on foreign policy and freedom of speech.

If elected again, can you assure that these individuals, or others like Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio—both funded by arms companies—will not hold positions in your administration?

Suggested questions for tonight’s @JoeRogan interview with @realDonaldTrump:

1. How will you handle the so-called deep state “wolves in MAGA hats” circling your transition team, posing as MAGA to obtain powerful positions in a prospective Trump administration? After all, rhetoric is cheap but personnel is policy. 2. In your previous administration, you appointed figures like Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, William Barr (former CIA), Robert O’Brien, Nikki Haley, and Elliott Abrams, who often opposed your “America First” rhetoric, especially on foreign policy and freedom of speech. If elected again, can you assure that these individuals, or others like Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio—both funded by arms companies—will not hold positions in your administration?

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly – with parliamentarians from 46 Council of Europe member states – will today debate and then vote on a draft resolution entitled "The detention and conviction of Julian Assange and their chilling effects on human rights"

This resolution, drafted by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, is based upon the report of Ms Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir, the Icelandic human rights expert, and MP from the Icelandic Pirate Party 👉pace.coe.int/en/files/33734… NOW: Watch live

Following Julian Assange's testimony yesterday, the debate and vote on the draft resolution "The detention and conviction of Julian Assange and their chilling effects on human rights" at the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly

"The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.

Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society" - Julian Assange, Council of Europe "[I]f Europe is to have a future where the freedom to speak and the freedom to publish the truth are not privileges enjoyed by a few but rights guaranteed to all then it must act so that what has happened in my case never happens to anyone else" - Julian Assange, Council of Europe

"When I founded WikiLeaks, it was driven by a simple dream: to educate people about how the world works so that, through understanding, we might bring about something better" - Julian Assange, Council of Europe "Knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand justice where there is none" - Julian Assange, Council of Europe

BREAKING: Belmarsh Prison refuses permission for Julian Assange to participate in European Parliaments Sakharov Prize Award today

Julian Assange's wife to attend on husbands' behalf - Today 9.30am CET/ 8.30am GMT

Live Stream: multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreamin… #FreeAssangeNOW @Europarl_EN Belmarsh prison authorities have refused permission for Julian Assange to participate via video link in meetings and press conferences taking place this week during the plenary of the European Parliament #SakharovPrize #FreeAssangeNOW

We contacted Julian Assange in prison. He says that everyone in #Ukraine should install @BriarApp NOW before the internet goes down. @BriarApp is designed to let people safely communicate with each other in exactly this situation briarproject.org Ми зв’язалися з Джуліаном Ассанжем у в’язниці. Він каже, що кожен в #Ukraine має встановити @BriarApp ЗАРАЗ, перш ніж зникне інтернет.
@BriarApp розроблено, щоб дозволити людям безпечно спілкуватися один з одним саме в такій ситуації briarproject.org

WikiLeaks’ Kristinn Hrafnsson, Westminster Magistrates’ Court Assange Hearing 27.7.20 WikiLeaks’ Kristinn Hrafnsson: "What the US is doing is truly unprecedented. A new indictment is being introduced halfway into the extradition proceedings, which have been a year in the making. The 'new' superseding indictment actually contains nothing new".

Defence lawyer Edward Fitzgerald: The extradition is for political purposes and that’s prohibited under US/UK treaty.

#DontExtraditeAssange #Freepress #FreeAssange Defence lawyer Edward Fitzgerald: This prosecution is not about criminal justice, it is due to underlying political motives of the US government.

Julian Assange’s detention “sets a dangerous precedent for journalists”, according to politicians from the Council of Europe’s parliamentary arm, who voted on Tuesday to oppose the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition to the US

theguardian.com/media/2020/jan… Labour peer and UK Rapporteur on #mediafreedom Lord Foulkes, ...had drafted an initial report – Threats to Media Freedom and Journalists’ Security in Europe – that will now contain amendments referring to Assange tabled by a number of European parliamentarians.

Ahead of Mike Pompeos' @SecPompeo visit to London tomorrow - more relevant than ever: The Pompeo Doctrine

Julian Assange 2017 editorial: The CIA director is waging war on truth-tellers like WikiLeaks

Full article washingtonpost.com (paywalled)

libertarianinstitute.org/articles/cia-d… @SecPompeo JA: 'When the director of the CIA, an unelected public servant, publicly demonizes a publisher such as WikiLeaks as a “fraud,” “coward” and “enemy,” it puts all journalists on notice, or should'.

Spain's top criminal court investigates company responsible for security at the [Ecuadorian] embassy which spied on Assange and passed on information to the US
news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-assa… "The case being investigated in Spain states that Mr Assange has been subjected to widespread interference on a massive scale by the American authorities, violating his confidential communications with his lawyers, among other rights," his legal team said.

BREAKING: A high level source within the Ecuadorian state has told @WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within "hours to days" using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext--and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.

defend.wikileaks.org/2019/04/03/ecu… WikiLeaks to @AP: "If President Moreno wants to illegally terminate a refugee publisher’s asylum to cover up an offshore corruption scandal, history will not be kind," apnews.com/76516948dee842…

Top ten press fabrications in the 'Russiagate' conspiracy craze related to @WikiLeaks:

1. An intentional front page fabrication in the Guardian falsely asserted Manafort secretly met with Assange -- in 2013, 2015 & 2016 with 'Russians'. Being sued:

gofundme.com/wikileaks-suin… 2. Tipple leak from CNN, NBC, CBS falsely asserted that Trump Jr received info from @WikiLeaks prior to publication. But the email itself shows that it was not from WikiLeaks and that it was AFTER publication. Retracted.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/953818076398616577

Top ten false or fabricated stories appearing in the press about WikiLeaks 1. Guardian front page fabrication claiming that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had "secret meetings " with Julian Assange. The fabrication included dates (2013, 2015, 2016) and Manafort's clothing on the alleged visits ("sandy coloured chinos") theintercept.com/2019/01/02/fiv…

WikiLeaks launches legal fund to sue the Guardian for publishing entirely fabricated story "Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy" -- which spread all over the world today. It is time the Guardian paid a price for fabricating news. gofundme.com/wikileaks-suin… The Guardian "journalist", Luke Harding, behind the fake Manafort story also claimed the NSA was secretly deleting his words, won "Pliagiarist of the Year" and was savaged by Julian Assange in this book review: newsweek.com/assange-how-gu…

Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange.
archive.fo/pUjrj This is going to be one of the most infamous news disasters since Stern published the "Hitler Diaries".

@AP @razhael Mr. Assange did not apply for such a visa at any time or author the document. The source is document fabricator & paid FBI informant Sigurdur Thordarson who was sentenced to prison for fabricating docs impersonating Assange, multiple frauds & pedophilllia. grapevine.is/news/2015/09/2… @AP @razhael Thordarson distributed these docs to Scandinavian media outlets years ago who found them to be untrustworthy. Thorsdarson, a proven serial document fabricator & media hoaxer has been released, so the docs are being recycled yet again.