When 'Freedom' Equals Fascism

Vladimir Putin's moves to tighten controls over foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has recently been portrayed in the West as yet another example of Russia's savage authoritarianism and anti-Western paranoia. While only a drunken apologist could deny Putin's authoritarianism, the real question is whether or not the crackdown on NGOs is a symptom of classic tyrant-paranoia, or if it has a valid basis.

If the Putin regime is being paranoid, then the case of blue-chip NGO Freedom House -- an American NGO whose name seems to pop up more than any other in this part of the world, particularly when it comes to the push for democracy -- provides a clear example of Henry Kissinger's dictum that "even a paranoid has some real enemies."

Freedom House was founded innocuously enough in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president and one of the great modern champions of human rights, and Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for president in 1940, uniting the mainstream American political spectrum to ensure that it would not be accused of being ideological. It was founded, according to its website, out of concern "with the mounting threats to peace and democracy [and has been] a vigorous proponent of democratic values and a steadfast opponent of dictatorships of the far left and the far right."

Who today is the far-left/right dictatorship that Freedom House steadfastly opposes?

James Woolsey, who chaired Freedom House for the past three years and only recently stepped aside, told Radio Free Europe in an interview in October that Russia was one of, if not the, main target. "We are really quite honored that President Putin, who is increasingly coming to head a government that is edging towards fascism in Russia, would be critical of what the NGOs, including Freedom House, were doing to help bring about a movement toward democracy in Ukraine," he said.

He described Russia as "fascist" several times in the interview. "We had a period of time in the early 1990s when we were working cooperatively with the Russian security services, but now apparently they have decided to try and blame the security services in the West for their own movement toward fascism," he said. "Mr. Putin and his movement toward fascism in Russia are on the wrong side of history. They are not going to succeed … ultimately they will lose."

All of this warlike talk might be excusable, even laudable, if it came from a genuine human rights activist who paid for these words. But this is James Woolsey -- one of the closest things America has to a Blackshirt (if we're going to abuse this overabused word as he does). Indeed it's almost comical -- in the way that so many insane-right-wing-plots are pure applied black comedy in the Bush Era -- that a seemingly heroic, do-good NGO like Freedom House could be led by one of the most nefarious vertebrates ever to befoul the halls of American power. You'd think that Woolsey, the notorious neocon goon and ex-CIA head, would have better things to do than to front organizations that would seem, on the surface, better suited for the likes of a Jimmy Carter. But then again, it's even scarier to consider that his role there is no accident.

A little background: Woolsey, among other things, was one of the original founding members of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the neocon vanguard which, in 1997, called for: a massive rearming of America to ensure that it had full-spectrum dominance; aggressive use of American power, including military, to implement and secure American global domination; and the invasion, occupation and democratization of Iraq. As most anti-Bush watchers know, the PNAC group famously bemoaned the fact that its imperial policies would meet resistance with the American public: "[T]he process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor." Like, as in, a 9/11. What luck!