[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1917-E1918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 THE GUILT-FREE RECORD OF GEORGE SOROS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MARK E. SOUDER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 28, 2006

  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, George Soros is one of the most 
controversial figures in American politics, and I think it is important 
for American families to focus on what George Soros has said about 
himself, what George Soros has said about his objectives, and where 
George Soros has spent his money to influence public opinion. Supreme 
Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote that ``the best disinfectant 
is sunshine,'' and it is in that spirit that I submit ``The Guilt-Free 
Record of George Soros'' to be printed in the Congressional Record.

                 The Guilt-Free Record of George Soros

       ``I am basically there to--to make money. I cannot and do 
     not look at the social consequences of--of what I do.'' 
     George Soros, commenting on being blamed for the financial 
     collapse of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Russia. 
     ``He can move world financial markets simply by voicing an 
     opinion or destabilize a government by buying and selling its 
     currency . . . [W]hen he saw cracks in the Asia boom, he 
     began selling the currency in Thailand. Traders in Hong Kong 
     followed suit, triggering a financial crisis that plunged 
     much of Asia into a depression. (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes 
     interview transcript, December 20, 1998)
       ``I don't feel guilty. Because I'm engaged in an amoral 
     activity which is not meant to have anything to do with 
     guilt.'' George Soros, commenting on his actions in the 
     currency markets. (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes interview 
     transcript, December 20, 1998)
       Soros Convicted of Insider-Trading, Ordered to Pay $2.8 
     million. ``George Soros's bid to overturn an insider-trading 
     conviction has been rejected by France's highest appeals 
     court, ending the billionaire's fight to erase a legal stain 
     on his 40-year investing career. The Court of Cassation, the 
     tribunal of last resort in France, ended its review of a 
     March 2005 judgment that Soros broke insider-trading laws 
     when he bought Societe Generale SA shares in 1988 with the 
     knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target. Soros had 
     been ordered to pay back 2.2 million euros ($2.8 million) in 
     gains.'' (Gabriele Parussini, ``Soros Insider-Trading 
     Conviction Upheld by Paris Appeals Court,'' Bloomberg, June 
     14, 2006)
       Soros: ``No Sense of Guilt'' for Confiscating Property from 
     Jews in Nazi-occupied Budapest. ``But there was no sense that 
     I shouldn't be there, because that was--well, actually, in a 
     funny way, it's just like in markets--that if I weren't 
     there--of course, I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would 
     . . . be taking it away anyhow . . . whether I was there or 
     not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken 
     away. So the--I had no role in taking away that property. So 
     I had no sense of guilt.'' (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes 
     interview transcript, December 20, 1998)
       Extended quotation from the 60 Minutes transcript follows: 
     ``When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, George Soros' 
     father was a successful lawyer. He lived on an island in the 
     Danube and liked to commute to work in a rowboat. But knowing 
     there were problems ahead for the Jews, he decided to split 
     his family up. He bought them forged papers and he bribed a 
     government official to take 14-year-old George Soros in and 
     swear that he was his Christian godson. But survival carried 
     a heavy price tag. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian 
     Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros 
     accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds, 
     confiscating property from the Jews.
       (Vintage footage of Jews walking in line; man dragging 
     little boy in line)
       KROFT: (Voiceover) These are pictures from 1944 of what 
     happened to George Soros' friends and neighbors.
       (Vintage footage of women and men with bags over their 
     shoulders walking; crowd by a train)
       KROFT: (Voiceover) You're a Hungarian Jew . . .
       Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
       KROFT: (Voiceover) . . . who escaped the Holocaust . . .
       (Vintage footage of women walking by train)
       Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.
       (Vintage footage of people getting on train)
       KROFT: (Voiceover) . . . by--by posing as a Christian.
       Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Right.
       (Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train; 
     train door closing with people in boxcar)
       KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get 
     shipped off to the death camps.
       Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that 
     that's when my character was made.
       KROFT: In what way?
       Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should 
     understand and--and anticipate events and when--when one is 
     threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it 
     was a--a very personal experience of evil.
       KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this 
     protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted 
     godson.
       Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.
       KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of 
     property from the Jews.
       Mr. SOROS: Yes. That's right. Yes.
       KROFT: I mean, that's--that sounds like an experience that 
     would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, 
     many years. Was it difficult?
       Mr. SOROS: Not--not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child 
     you don't--you don't see the connection. But it was--it 
     created no--no problem at all.
       KROFT: No feeling of guilt?
       Mr. SOROS: No.
       KROFT: For example that, ``I'm Jewish and here I am, 
     watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I 
     should be there.'' None of that?
       Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c--I could be on the other 
     side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken 
     away. But there was no sense that I shouldn't be there, 
     because that was--well, actually, in a funny way, it's just 
     like in markets--that if I weren't there--of course, I wasn't 
     doing it, but somebody else would--would--would be taking it 
     away anyhow. And it was the--whether I was there or not, I 
     was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So 
     the--I had no role in taking away that property. So I had 
     no sense of guilt.'' (``George Soros,'' 60 Minutes 
     interview transcript, December 20, 1998).
       Soros Said That President Bush's Statements Remind Him of 
     Nazi Slogans. `` `When I hear Bush say, `You're either with 
     us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans.' It conjures 
     up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind 
     Hort mit (`The enemy is listening'). `My experiences under 
     Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me,' he said in a soft 
     Hungarian accent.' '' (Laura Blumenfeld, ``Soros's Deep 
     Pockets vs. Bush,'' The Washington Post, November 11, 2003).
       Soros Is the Primary Financier of Left-Wing Causes. Tax 
     records of Soros' Open Society Institute show contributions 
     of: $4.41 million to the American Civil Liberties Union and 
     its state affiliates; $500,000 to the Pro-Choice Education 
     Project to launch a (pro-abortion rights) ``public education 
     and media strategy;'' $100,000 to Catholics for a Free 
     Choice, an allegedly Catholic group that advocates for 
     abortion rights; $100,000 to the Death Penalty Information 
     Center, an organization that works against capital 
     punishment; $100,000 to the Pennsylvania Coalition to Save 
     Lives Now ``to support needle exchange programs,'' $80,000 
     over three years to the Gay Straight Alliance Network, to 
     promote ``a traveling photo documentary exhibit by lesbian, 
     gay, transgender, queer and questioning youth;'' $35,000 to 
     the Abortion Access Project. (Jeff Johnson, ``George Soros'' 
     $30M Welfare Check,'' CNSNews.com, April 26, 2005).
       The Soros Prostitution Agenda. Open Society Institute 
     (OSI), a foundation funded and controlled by George Soros, 
     sued the United States Agency for International Development 
     (USAID) ``over requirement that recipients of federal AIDS 
     grants pledge to oppose prostitution. The group would be the 
     second charity to challenge the policy, which AIDS activists 
     say stigmatizes prostitutes and makes it harder to fight the 
     disease.'' In June 2006, Open Society Institute published a 
     study entitled ``Sex Workers Health and Rights: Where is the 
     Funding?'' The report highlighted the role of OSI and various 
     Soros foundations, in financing ``a large number of sex 
     workers organizations'' and attacked the Bush Administration 
     policy for refusing to fund such groups. OSI received at 
     least $30 million between 1998 and 2003 from the federal 
     government, mostly from the State Department. (Wall Street 
     Journal, September 23, 2005; Open Society Institute webpages, 
     http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/sharp/news/
usaid_20050923,: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/
focus/sharp/articles_publications/publications 
     where_20060719/where.pdf
       Soros Called the War on Drugs a ``Fantasy'' and More 
     Harmful Than Drugs Themselves. ``Tilting the balance against 
     the drug warriors side is a short piece by Howard Fineman on 
     the activities of George Soros. The billionaire financier, 
     who calls the drug war `a fantasy' and says it does more harm 
     to America than drugs themselves, has spent big money pushing 
     his position that we should treat drug abuse as a medical 
     problem, not a criminal one.'' (Bill Steigerwald, ``Newsweek 
     Wants A Drug Debate,'' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 30, 
     1997).
       Soros is Major Financier Behind Drug Legalization Groups. 
     In 1994, Soros pledged $4 million over five years to the 
     Lindesmith Center, a pro-marijuana legalization think-tank 
     that merged with the Drug Policy Foundation to form the Drug 
     Policy Alliance, which supports legalization of marijuana for 
     ``medical'' purposes, repealing mandatory minimum sentences 
     for drug offenses, ending imprisonment for drug possession. 
     (Neil Hrab, ``George Soros' Social Agenda for America,'' 
     Capital Research Center's Foundation Watch, http://
www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3770435801.pdf)
       Soros Heavily Financed Drug Legalization Efforts For 
     Marijuana. ``And the award for best supporting role goes to 
     billionaire George Soros, the Daddy Warbucks of drug 
     legalization. He doesn't reside in either state [Arizona or 
     California], but he bankrolled both efforts. . . . Most money 
     used to buy misleading TV ads for both referenda came from 
     out of state. In Arizona, as of the most

[[Page E1918]]

     recent reporting date (May 31), of $300,490 contributed to 
     support Prop. 200, only $490 came from in state. The 
     remaining $300,000 came from out of state, $200,000 of it 
     from the Drug Policy Foundation--a pet charity of George 
     Soros'--and the other $100,000 came directly from Soros 
     himself.'' (Joseph A. Califano Jr., ``Pro-Drug Campaigns' 
     Hidden Agenda,'' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 22, 1996)
       Soros Helped Finance a Pro-Marijuana Children's Book. ``Dr. 
     Robert Newman, served on the Board of Directors for the Drug 
     Policy Foundation as early as 1997, and presently serves on 
     the board of directors with another minority witness, Rev. 
     Edwin Sanders, of the Drug Policy Alliance (the new name of 
     the Drug Policy Foundation since its merger with the 
     aforementioned Lindesmith Center). The Drug Policy Alliance 
     describes itself as ``the nation's leading organization 
     working to end the war on drugs.'' Along with its major donor 
     George Soros, it helped produce It's Just a Plant, a 
     promarijuana children's book. I will be very interested in 
     learning from the witnesses today what they believe U.S. 
     Government policy should be with respect to financing heroin 
     distribution, safe-injection facilities, and how-to manuals 
     like H Is For Heroin, published by the Harm Reduction 
     Coalition, and children's books on smoking marijuana, 
     produced with the help of the organization run by two of the 
     minority's witnesses today.'' (Mark Souder, opening 
     statement, ``Harm Reduction or Harm Maintenance: Is There 
     Such a Thing as Safe Drug Abuse?'', hearing before the 
     Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human 
     Resources, February 16, 2005, http://www.dpna.org/resources/
current/02-16-5c.htm; http://www.justaplant.com) 
       Soros and Two Friends give $450,000 to ``take apart 
     [California's] criminal justice system one step at a time.'' 
     ``International financier George Soros and two other wealthy 
     donors have contributed a total of $450,000 for a November 
     ballot measure that would alter California's tough three 
     strikes sentencing law . . . The donation marks the third 
     time that this trio has backed criminal justice measures 
     in California. In 1996, the three gave money to pass 
     Proposition 215, which sought to legalize marijuana for 
     medical uses. In 2000, they supported the successful 
     Proposition 36, which diverts drug offenders from prison 
     to treatment.'' (Bill Ainsworth, ``$450,000 to help try to 
     weaken law,'' San Diego Union-Tribune, September 14, 
     2004.)
       Soros Effort To Infiltrate the U.S. Conservative Movement. 
     ``The scheduled Friday CPAC event on ``A Conservative Drug 
     Policy'' was to feature a mini-debate between Ethan Nadelmann 
     of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and Calvina Fay. The 
     ``moderator,'' hardly unbiased, was scheduled to be Rob 
     Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). The Soros Open 
     Society Institute has given the DPA millions of dollars, 
     including $2.5 million in 2004 alone. MPP has been funded by 
     Soros as well as Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive 
     Corporation, who was arrested in New Zealand several years 
     ago after customs officers found marijuana in his luggage. 
     Lewis, who gave $340,000 to MPP in 2004, is also a major 
     funder of the ACLU.'' (Mark Souder, Congressional Record, 
     insertion in the record of article by Cliff Kincaid, February 
     8, 2006, http://reform.house.gov/CJDPHR/News/
DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=39349)
       Soros Support of Lynne Stewart, Lawyer to Terrorists. 
     ``George Soros funds many controversial projects, some 
     extreme projects. One quick example is the $20,000 that went 
     from his Open Society Institute to the Lynne Stewart Legal 
     Committee. Lynne Stewart was the attorney who represented the 
     blind sheik who was involved in the first bombing of the 
     World Trade Centers and was later convicted for aiding and 
     abetting his activities while in prison.'' (Peter Flaherty of 
     the National Legal and Policy Center, O'Reilly Factor, May 
     20, 2005, relying on Open Society Institute IRS Form 990 
     filings. Byron York, ``Soros Funded Stewart Defense,'' 
     National Review, February 17, 2005.)
       Soros Attacks ``War on Terror,'' Compares Bush 
     Administration to Nazis. Soros told an audience at the 
     Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ``We are working 
     with a very false frame when we talk about a `war on terror,' 
     and yet it is universally accepted.'' He added, ``President 
     Bush is exploiting it even further ahead of these elections . 
     . . I would voice my concerns about the similarities between 
     this administration and the Nazis and communist regimes.'' 
     (Monisha Bansal, ``Soros Slams Terror 'War,' Compares White 
     House to Nazis,'' CNSNews.com, September 15, 2006.)
       Soros To Encourage a U.S./Europe Split. ``Soros, the 
     Hungarian-American financier who has historically invested 
     his billions in encouraging democracy in eastern block 
     countries, is turning his attention to Western Europe because 
     he thinks the EU is failing. Soros is to invest hundreds of 
     millions of dollars in foundations, the first of which will 
     be either in London or Paris.'' Soros: ``The practical 
     message for Europeans is that the world really needs a strong 
     European Union with a mission which is different to America's 
     priorities.'' (Rupert Stein, ``Soros lays foundations to 
     restore EU purpose,'' The Scotsman, July 15, 2006.)

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