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HOW RIGHT-WING CULT LEADER SUN MYUNG MOON BOUGHT WASHINGTON
By Rory O'Connor, RoryOConnor.org
AlterNet
November 13, 2009

http://www.alternet.org/story/143914/

³Moon looked on the media as almost the nervous system for a global empire.
Moon was the brain, and the media are to be, or were to be, the
communications vehicle for his body politic surrounding the globe.²

In January 1992, PBS Frontline broadcast a film I directed that documented
the amazing rise, fall and subsequent resurrection of Sun Myung Moon,
founder of the Unification Church movement. The documentary showed how,
through an adroit combination of money, media and the consistent promotion
of a conservative political agenda, a self-styled Messiah and convicted
felon had rapidly reinvented himself and was soon hailed at the White House.

At the time, few Americans paid much attention to Reverend Moon ­ and those
that did had bizarre recollections of him and the ³Moonies,² as his
followers once called themselves: mass weddings of complete strangers,
flower-peddling in the street, and repeated allegations of mind control and
brainwashing.

Even back then, Moonıs movement, once labeled a cult, was more accurately
described as a conglomerate. As my film stated, ³From media operations in
the nationıs capitalŠ To substantial real estate holdings throughout the
United StatesŠ And from large commercial fishing operationsŠ To advanced
high-tech and computer industries, a Fifth Avenue publishing house, and
literally dozens of other businesses, foundations, associations, institutes,
and political and cultural groupsŠ Moon and his money have become a force to
be reckoned with.²

One of the primary vehicles for Moonıs rising power and influence was the
daily newspaper the Washington Times, now back in the news because of the
mysterious departure of its top executives <http://bit.ly/2u2NHS>, and
facing an uncertain future.

But back then the Times was the fulcrum of Moonıs mission to use money and
media as a path to power. As James Whelan, once the newspaperıs editor and
publisher, told me at the time, ³They are spending a great, great deal in
this countryŠ. probably more on influence and the obtaining of influence, of
power, than of any organization I know of in this country, and that includes
the AFL-CIO, that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that includes
General Motors, that includes anybody.²

As he sought to influence Americaıs political agenda by pouring more than a
billion dollars into media, Moon began to move among the countryıs political
elite: From Dwight EisenhowerŠto Strom ThurmondŠto Richard NixonŠto Ronald
Reagan, he glad-handed and corresponded with an astonishing array of major
American political figures.

Michael Warder was once one of the most important Americans in the
Unification movement. Warder, who had close contact with Moon for years,
told me, ³Moon looked on the media as almost the nervous system for a global
empire. Moon was the brain, and the media are to be, or were to be, the
communications vehicle for his body politic surrounding the globe.²

Warder was responsible for managing News World, then Moonıs daily newspaper
in New York City. ³Moon wanted total control of the media, so there would be
no independent media with journalistic integrity,² he said. ³ It would be a
media totally loyal to Moon.²

Moonıs troubles in America had begun in the mid-Seventies, when Minnesota
Democratic Congressman Donald Fraser launched the so-called ³Koreagate²
investigation -- in part a probe into Moonıs relationship to the Korean CIA
and the buying of political influence on Capitol Hill. Using its own media,
Moonıs organization struck back in an all-out effort to discredit Fraser.

³Moon wanted a whole series of articles going after poor Congressman Fraser,
who was heading up the congressional investigations there,² Warder confided.
³We would assign reporters to try and dig up all the dirt we could find on
Congressman Fraser, and of course I would say to Moon, I said, ŒOn one hand,
weıre supposed to be doing this -- but on the other hand, weıre competing
with the New York Times. And so thereıs matters of credibility here.ı And he
would, you know, bluster and get angry at these kinds of things and say,
ŒJust do what Iım ordering you to do and donıt ask so many questions.²

The Fraser Committeeıs final report concluded that Moon was the ³key figure²
in an ³international network of organizations engaged in economic and
political² activities. It uncovered evidence that the Moon Organization ³had
systematically violated U.S. tax, immigration, banking, currency, and
Foreign Agents Registration Act laws,² and detailed how the Korean CIA paid
Moon to stage demonstrations at the United Nations and run a pro-South
Korean propaganda effort.

Michael Hershman was the Fraser Committeeıs chief investigator. He told me,
³We determined that their primary interest, at least in the United States at
that time, was not religious at all, but was political. It was an attempt to
gain power and influence and authority.² The Fraser Committee recommended
that the White House form a task force to continue to investigate Moon --
but that never happened.

Perhaps the election of Ronald Reagan -- hailed as the beginning of a
conservative revolution -- had something to do with that. In any event,
Moon, a VIP guest at Reaganıs inauguration, soon became a major funder of
Washingtonıs new conservative establishment.

Brent Bozell, now founder and president of the Media Research Center, was
then one of the young Reagan Revolutionaries. ³When the Moonies entered the
political scene in the early Nineteen Eighties,² Bozell said, ³One school of
thought saidŠthat because of their anti-communist commitment, conservatives
ought to work with them.²

Moonıs most expensive political work involved the Washington Times. As
former editor Whelan noted, ³Washington is the most important single city in
the world. If you can achieve influence, if you can achieve visibility, if
you can achieve a measure of respect in Washington, then you fairly
automatically are going to achieve these things in the rest of the world.
There is no better agency, or entity or instrument that I know of for
achieving power here or almost anywhere else -- than a newspaper.²

And the Times had an immediate impact. After all, the President of the
United States said it was the first paper he read in the morning. Soon its
columnists found even greater exposure on television.

³If the Washington Times did not carry the conservative columnists that they
carry -- like a Pat Buchanan, like a Bill Rusher, like a Mona Charen,²
Bozell said, ³I wonder if the television community would be aware of them
and would tap them to use them in television.²

But by 1984, despite his paperıs growing influence, editor James Whelan was
increasingly unhappy. ³When we started the paper there was never any
question that it would in any fashion project the views or the agenda of Sun
Myung Moon or the Unification Church -- all to the contrary,² said Whelan.
³We said, ŒLook, we are going to put a high wall in place. It is going to be
a sturdy wall. And it will divide us from you.ı²

But Whelanıs wall of editorial independence was often breached.

³Moon himself gave direct instructions to the editors,² he averred. ³Who in
fact calls the shots? Ultimately Moon calls the shotsŠ.²

Whelan eventually resigned, announcing at a press conference, ³The
Washington Times has become a Moonie newspaper.² Times spokesmen said the
dispute was really over money. Former Newsweek editor Arnaud de Borchgrave
later replaced Whelan.

De Borchgrave consistently denied taking orders from Moon -- but the man who
ran the editorial pages under de Borchgrave, William Cheshire, told a
different story. ³I protested to de Borchgrave,² Cheshire told me. ³I went
up to his office when I saw this happening, I told him this was unethical,
improper, unprofessional, and it ought to stop. Also, it was dumb.²

Cheshire and four others resigned after de Borchgrave ordered an about-face
on an editorial critical of the South Korean government. ³I said, ŒArnaud,
we have a problem,ı ² Cheshire recalled. ³He said, ŒWhatıs the problem?ı I
said, ŒThe problem is youıve conferred with the owners of this newspaper,
come back downstairs and demanded a reversal of editorial policy on their
say so.²

Questions about control of the Washington Times persisted for years. Several
journalists, including Lars Erik Nelson of the New York Daily News, called
for a Justice Department investigation to determine if the paper violated
the Foreign Agents Registration Act. ³The Justice Department doesnıt seem to
want to know, and Iıve never gotten a clear answer from them as to why they
donıt want to know,² Nelson said. ³Theyıve said, ŒHmmm, thatıs an
interesting point.ı They say, ŒHmmm, weıll think about that.ı And they never
get back to me.²

Times officials sent a statement in reply, noting, ³The complete editorial
independence of the Washington Times is well-known, and envied, throughout
the newspaper industry.²

Throughout the Reagan years, the paper gained respect and influence by
lending editorial support -- and money -- to causes favored by the
Administration. The contra forces battling the Sandinista government in
Nicaragua, for example, received editorial support and money from the Times.
Hereıs how it worked:

In March 1985, Oliver North wrote a top-secret memo proposing the formation
of a private foundation called the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund. Its purpose was
to circumvent a Congressional ban on aid to the contras. Less than two
months later, the Times announced the birth of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund
in a front-page editorial. Editor de Borchgrave insisted he was ³surprised²
at the coincidence between his paperıs initiative and Northıs secret
project, but the Times contributed the first $100,000 to the Fund.

Another pet project of the Reagan Administration was the Strategic Defense
Initiative -- SDI, or ³Star Wars.² It too received support from the Times.

³Reverend Moonıs organization has been very supportive of the Strategic
Defense Initiative,² former Defense and Central Intelligence official Daniel
Graham told me. Graham had co-produced a pro-Star Wars video that was seen
on four hundred televisions stations.

³Itıs called ŒOne Incoming,ı² Graham said, ³And it includes a scenario that
I got Tom Clancy to write for us, and I got Charlton Heston to do the
voiceover. It cost a lot of money to produce it -- $200,000 Š and Iım sure
thatıs where the money came from to produce that movie.²

Moonıs media tentacles also reached into book publishing, including one
called Inquisition, a purportedly independent investigation of Moonıs 1982
tax fraud prosecution, released by the right-wing publishing house
Regnery-Gateway. Its author, Carlton Sherwood, was a reporter who once
worked for the Washington Times. (Sherwood made headlines in 2004 when he
produced the controversial video Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, which
featured interviews with American POWıs in North Vietnam who complained that
they had been maltreated as a direct result of Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerryıs Fulbright Hearing Testimony in 1971.

Inquisition had a curious history. An obscure publishing house called
Andromeda had printed it once before. The phone number listed for Andromeda
was the home phone of former Reagan National Security Council official Roger
Fontaine -- also an ex-reporter at the Washington Times. But when we called
Fontaineıs house, his wife Judy answered and told us that the company was
bankrupt and that Inquisition was published by Regnery-Gateway. Alfred
Regnery is the head of Regnery-Gateway.

According to former Times editor Whelan, himself a Regnery-Gateway author,
Alfred Regnery was told by Carlton Sherwood that the Moon Organization would
purchase at least one hundred thousand copies of Inquisition. Alfred Regnery
denied it, and although he refused an on-camera interview, Sherwood said the
Unification Movement had exerted no editorial control over his book.

In the wake of the current turmoil and uncertainty at the Washington Times,
many questions about the Unification Movement remain unanswered. But none is
more pressing -- or perplexing -- than this: Where did all the money come
from? At the time of the broadcast of the PBS Frontline film -- seventeen
years ago -- the Moon Organization had already spent an astonishing amount
in the United States:

€ more than $800 million on the Washington Times;

€ hundreds of millions on national periodicals;

€ tens of millions on electronic media;

€ at least $40 million on New York newspapers;

€ more than $10 million on a New York publishing house;

€ millions on World Media Association junkets and conferences;

€ millions more on New Right organizations, including the American Freedom
Coalition;

€ well over $100 million on real estate, including the New Yorker Hotel in
midtown Manhattan;

€ at least $40 million on commercial fishing operations;

€ and at least $75 million on related projectsŠ

It all added up to more than a billion dollars -- at a time when most of
Moonıs operations in America were losing substantial sums of money. The best
example was the Washington Times itself, which was then losing as much as
fifty million dollars a year.

What did all the money buy Reverend Moon? Like many others, he refused to
talk to me for the film. But in a Church-sponsored film, Reverend Moon in
America -- one of the many media efforts he spun out in the Eighties -- he
had this to say:

³Now whether positively or negatively, America knows me -- and it happened
quickly. At least I have Americaıs attention. Because of that, I will be
able to tell the people the truth of God, the new revelation. The worst
treatment America could give me is to ignore me. Now I can preach the
truth.²

............

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