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Front organization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Front organization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a particular use of the term connected with intelligence gathering, organized crime and religious or political groups. For Covert organization, see Covert operation.
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations. Front organizations can act for the parent group without the actions being attributed to the parent group.
Front organizations that appear to be independent voluntary associations orcharitable organizations are called front groups. In the business world, front organizations such as front companies or shell corporations are used to shield the parent company from legal liability. In international relations, a puppet state is a state which acts as a front (or surrogate) for another state.

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Scientology

The Church of Scientology uses front groups either to promote their interests in politics or to make their group seem more legitimate[citation needed]. TheFBI's July 7, 1977 raids on the Church's offices (following discovery of the Church's Operation Snow White) turned up, among other documents, an undated memo entitled "PR General Categories of Data Needing Coding". This memo listed what it called "Secret PR Front Groups," which included the group APRL, "Alliance for the Preservation of Religious Liberty" (later renamed "Americans Preserving Religious Liberty").[9] The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) is considered by many to now be a front group for the Church of Scientology, which took the group over financially after bankrupting it in a series of lawsuits.[10][11][12]
Time identified several other fronts for Scientology, including: the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), The Way to Happiness Foundation, Applied Scholastics, the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, andHealthMed Clinic.[13] Seven years later the Boston Herald showed howNarconon and World Literacy Crusade are also fronting for Scientology.[14]Other Scientology groups include Downtown Medical, Criminon and theAssociation for Better Living and Education (ABLE).

[edit]Politics

In politics, a group may be called a front organization if is perceived to be disingenuous in its control or goals, or if it attempts to mask extremist views within a supposedly more moderate group. Some special interest groups engage in astroturfing, which is an attempt to mask lobbying as a grassroots movement.

[edit]Gun control lobbying fronts

Many in the gun rights movement claim that the American Hunters and Shooters Association is a front for gun control groups aimed at dividing gun owners into the sport-oriented and the self-defense oriented.

[edit]Pro-Israel lobbying fronts

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has been accused of using front organizations as a means of circumventing limits on campaign spending[15] These front organizations have names unrelated to AIPAC. Delaware Valley Good Government Association (Philadelphia), San Franciscans for Good Government(California), Beaver PAC (Wisconsin), Cactus PAC (Arizona), and Icepac (New York) are examples of former AIPAC front groups.[16]
"According to a computer-aided analysis of 1986 Federal Election Reports, despite AIPAC’s claims of non-involvement in political spending, no fewer than 51 pro-Israel PACs—most of which draw money from Jewish donors and operate under obscure-sounding names—are operated by AIPAC officials or people who hold seats on AIPAC’s two major policymaking bodies. The study shows that 80 pro-Israel PACs spent more than $6.9 million during the 1986 campaigns, making them the nation’s biggest-giving narrow-issue interest group." [17]

[edit]Islamist front organizations

See also: Islamism, List of charities accused of ties to terrorism, andMuslim Brotherhood Influence Operations
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is alleged by many scholars and intelligence agencies to be front organizations based on their founding ties to known Islamist organizations like Hamas.[18][19] Rep. Cass Ballenger of North Carolina has stated that CAIR is a "fund-raising arm for Hezbollah" in an interview with the Charlotte Observer published 4 October 2003. CAIR official Todd "Ismail" Royer was convicted of conspiring to train on American soil for violent jihad.[citation needed] CAIR officials Rabih Haddad, Bassem Khafagi and Ghassan Elashi have all been convicted of conspiring to fund Islamic terrorist groups.[20][21]
Hezbollah, the Lebanese anti-Israel guerrilla army runs many front organizations for fundraising, including the Al-Mabarrat organization inDearborn.[22][23]
In the UK, the Muslim Association of Britain has been accused of being a front for or connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.[24]

[edit]Apartheid government fronts

South Africa's apartheid-era government used numerous front organizations to influence world opinion and to undertake extra-judicial activities and the killing of anti-apartheid activists; these included[25] the following:

[edit]Communist fronts

Further information: Communist front
It has been suggested that Communist front bemerged into this article or section. (Discuss)Proposed since August 2011.
Communist and other Marxist-Leninist parties have sometimes used front organizations to attract support from those (sometimes called fellow travellers) who may not necessarily agree with Leninist ideology. The front organization often obscures its provenance and may often be a tool for recruitment. Other Marxists often describe front organizations as opportunist. The concept of a front organization should be distinguished from the united front (a coalition of working class or socialist parties) and the popular front. Both the united front and popular front usually disclose the groups that make up their coalitions.

[edit]United States

According to a list prepared in 1955 by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, the Comintern set up no less than 82 front organizations in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. This tactic was often used during the Red Scare of the 1950s, when a number of organizations in the labor and peace movements were accused of being "Communist fronts". Sometimes, Communist fronts worked at an international level, as has been alleged with the World Peace Council.[26]
Soviet intelligence infiltrated many peace movements in the West. In addition to WPC, important communist front organizations included the World Federation of Trade Unions, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and the International Union of Students.[27] Richard Felix Staar has also suggested that these organizations were somewhat less important front organizations: Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, Christian Peace Conference, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Federation of Resistance Movements, International Institute for Peace,International Organization of Journalists, Women's International Democratic Federation and World Federation of Scientific Workers.[28] There were also numerous smaller organizations, affiliated with the above fronts such asPugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.[29][30] Numerous peace conferences, congresses and festivals have been staged with support of those organizations.[31]
More recently, the Workers' World Party (WWP)[32] set up an anti-war front group, International ANSWER. (ANSWER is no longer closely associated with WWP; it is closely associated with a WWP splinter, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, but PSL plays a more open role in the organization.) Similarly, Unite Against Fascism, the Anti-Nazi League, the Stop the War Coalition and Respect – The Unity Coalition are all criticised as being fronts for the TrotskyistSocialist Workers Party (UK).

[edit]Russia

In April 1991, CPSU leadership and the KGB has created a puppet political party inside Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), which became the second officially registered party in the country.[33] According to KGB GeneralPhilipp Bobkov, it was a "Zubatov's pseudo-party under KGB control that directs interests and sentiments of certain social groups".[34] The formerCPSU Politburo member Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev described in his book how KGB director Vladimir Kryuchkov presented the project of the puppet party at a joint meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev and informed him about a selection of LDPR leaders, and the mechanism of funding from CPSU money.[34]The book includes an official copy of a document providing the initial LDPR funding (3 million rubles) from the CPSU money. The leader of LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky proved to be an effective media performer.[33] He gained 8% of votes during the 1991 Presidential elections.[35] He also supported the Aug 1991 coup attempt.

[edit]Other

Some anti-Islamist feminist groups in the Muslim world have also been accused of being front organizations. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan has been accused of being a Maoist front, while the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has been accused of being a front for theWorker-Communist Party of Iraq .[36][37]

[edit]Banned paramilitary organizations

Banned paramilitary organizations sometimes use front groups to achieve a public face with which to raise funds, negotiate with opposition parties, recruit, and spread propaganda. For example, banned paramilitary organizations often have an affiliated political party that operates more openly (though often these parties, themselves, end up being banned). These parties may or may not be front organizations in the narrow sense (they have varying degrees of autonomy and the relationships are usually something of an open secret) but are widely considered to be so, especially by their political opponents.
Examples are the relationship between the IRA and Sinn Féin in 1980s Irelandor between the Basque groups ETA (paramilitary) and Batasuna (party) in Spain. Similarly, in the United States in periods where the Communist Party was highly stigmatized, it often operated largely through front groups. In addition, the Provisional IRA also operated a vigilante front group, called Direct Action Against Drugs.
During the Weimar Republic in Germany, the antisemitic and nationalistOrganisation Consul reportedly had a front company named the Bavarian Wood Products Company.[38]

[edit]Corporate front organizations

See also: Shell corporation
Corporations from a wide variety of different industries set up front groups. Some pharmaceutical companies set up "patients' groups" as front organizations that pressure healthcare providers and legislators to adopt their products. For example, Schering Healthcare and Biogen Ltd. tried to pressure the UKNational Health Service (NHS) to adopt its drug Beta Interferon to treatMultiple Sclerosis (MS) sufferers. Schering set up and funded a group calledMS Voice, with its own website, which claimed to represent MS sufferers.[citation needed]
Another pharmaceutical company, Biogen, set up a campaign called Action for Access, which also claimed it was an independent organization and the voice of MS sufferers. People who visited the website and signed up for the campaign did not realise that these were not genuinely independent patient groups. It has been alleged that computer software giant Microsoft created and funded the Association for Competitive Technology to defend its interests against charges of antitrust violations.[citation needed] Tobacco companies frequently use front organizations and doctors to advocate their arguments about tobacco use, although less openly and obviously than in the 1980s.
The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is one of the more active corporate front groups and one of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a public affairs firm owned by lobbyist Rick Berman. They claim to be supported by restaurants, food companies and more than 1,000 concerned individuals. Based in Washington, DC, Berman & Co. represents the tobacco industry as well as hotels, beer distributors, taverns, and restaurant chains. The group actively opposes smoking bans and lowering the legal blood-alcohol level, while targeting studies on the dangers of red meat consumption, overfishing and pesticides. Each year they give out the "nanny awards" to groups who, according to them, try to tell consumers how to live their lives.[39] Berman & Co. is also associated with various anti-union and union-busting campaigns, such as their "Center for Union Facts", as well as anti-animal rights campaigns such as "www.petakillsanimals.com".[39]
A list of some alleged corporate front groups active in the US is maintained by the Multinational Monitor.[40] Some think tanks are corporate front groups. These organizations present themselves as research organizations, using phrases such as "...Institute for Research" in their names. Because their names suggest neutrality, they can present the commercial strategies of the corporations which sponsor them in a way which appears to be objectivesociological or economical research rather than political lobbying.
Similarly the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness has been criticised as a front organization for various industry bodies which seek to undermine regulation of their environmentally damaging activities under the guise of 'regulatory effectiveness'.[41]







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