Moon also used the Washington Times and its affiliated publications to create seemingly legitimate conduits to funnel money to individuals and companies. In another example of Moon's helpful largesse, the Washington Times hired Viguerie to conduct a pricy direct-mail subscription drive.
Falwell's Savior
Another case of saving a right-wing icon occurred when the Rev. Jerry Falwell was facing financial ruin over the debts piling up at Liberty University.
But the fundamentalist Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia, got a last-minute bail-out in the mid-1990s ostensibly from two Virginia businessmen, Dan Reber and Jimmy Thomas, who used their non-profit Christian Heritage Foundation to snap up a large chunk of Liberty's debt for $2.5 million, a fraction of its face value.
Falwell rejoiced and called the moment "the greatest single day of financial advantage" in the school's history, even though it was accomplished at the disadvantage of many small true-believing investors who had bought the church construction bonds through a Texas company.
But Falwell's secret benefactor behind the debt purchase was Sun Myung Moon, who was kept in the background partly because of his controversial Biblical interpretations that hold Jesus to have been a failure and because of Moon's alleged brainwashing of thousands of young Americans, often shattering their bonds with their biological families.
Moon had used his tax-exempt Women's Federation for World Peace to funnel $3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage Foundation, the non-profit that purchased the school's debt. I stumbled onto this Moon-Falwell connection by examining the Internal Revenue Service filings of Moon's front groups.
The Women Federation's vice president Susan Fefferman confirmed that the $3.5 million grant had gone to "Mr. Falwell's people" for the benefit of Liberty University. [For more on Moon's funding of the Right, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.]
Moon also used the Women's Federation to pay substantial speaking fees to former President George H.W. Bush, who gave talks at Moon-sponsored events. In September 1995, Bush and his wife, Barbara, gave six speeches in Asia for the Women's Federation. In one speech on Sept. 14 to 50,000 Moon supporters in Tokyo, Bush said "what really counts is faith, family and friends."
In summer 1996, Bush was lending his prestige to Moon again. The former President addressed the Moon-connected Family Federation for World Peace in Washington, an event that gained notoriety when comedian Bill Cosby tried to back out of his contract after learning of Moon's connection. Bush had no such qualms. [Washington Post, July 30, 1996]
In fall 1996, Moon needed the ex-President's help once more. Moon was trying to replicate his Washington Times influence in South America by opening a regional newspaper, Tiempos del Mundo. But South American journalists were recounting unsavory chapters of Moon's history, including his links to South Korea's intelligence service and various neo-fascist groups.
Some newspaper articles noted that in the early 1980s, Moon had used friendships with the military dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay which had been responsible for tens of thousands of political murders to invest in those two countries. There also were allegations of Moon's links to the region's major drug traffickers.
Moon's disciples fumed about the critical
stories and accused the Argentine news media of trying to sabotage
Moon's plans for an inaugural gala in Buenos Aires on Nov. 23, 1996.
"The local press was trying to undermine the event," complained the
church's internal newsletter, Unification News.
Given the controversy, Argentina's elected president, Carlos Menem,
decided to reject Moon's invitation to attend.
Trump Card
But Moon had a trump card: the endorsement of an ex-President of the United States, George H.W. Bush. Agreeing to speak at the newspaper's launch, Bush flew aboard a private plane, arriving in Buenos Aires on Nov. 22. Bush stayed at Menem's official residence, the Olivos.
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