Trojan Horse Charities and the Foreign Agents Registration Act

The Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), a statute often directed towards nonprofits that receive foreign funding, is a disclosure statute.  If you violate it you are quite literally a "secret agent." I'm working on a paper that talks about government fear of Trojan Horses charities -- international NGO's who come bearing aid, education, or research, but secretly harbor political warriors within. Secret agent "jump out boys" just waiting to stir up trouble with antigovernment political rhetoric.  So many countries have their own version of FARA, that we should think it almost nativist human instinct to suspect and as a result interdict charitable groups from abroad, or domestic organizations collaborating with and sometimes funded by foreign actors.  As with just about anything, one bad apple makes it harder for everyone.  Trojan Horse regulation of nonprofits happens at nearly every border.  It was that sentiment, for example that motivated the State of Alabama to demand to know who funded the NAACP.  Its a nativism fueled not so much by a preference for one's own kind as much as by incumbent government's instinct to repress challengers. It is easier to do that when you can characterize your situation as "every gets along here just like it is, except when outside agitators come around talking."  Trojan Horses charities are a danger to everyone, but especially other nongovernmental organizations, because of the reaction they provoke by paranoid incumbents.  

Cases like the one described below only give justification for governments to persecute legitimate NGO's just trying to deliver aid in foreign lands, build academic bridges across borders or foster wider research collaboration.  Earlier this month, DOJ unsealed an indictment against Gal Luft, the Co-Director of a 501(c)(3) think tank called the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.  Luft, as it turns out, is something of a Republican darling, having claimed to have knowledge about Hunter Biden and the "Biden family's relationship with" a Chinese conglomerate.  Luft explains it all in a video exclusively provided to the New York Post in which he attributes his indictment to the weaponized Biden DOJ.  The problem is, he's a fugitive on the lam so he's not around to further explain.

Luft's bio from the Institute's home page says this:

Dr. Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy, security, and economic trends. He is a senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council, a cabinet level extra governmental advisory committee. He specializes in geopolitics, geo-economics, energy security, Middle East and US-China relations. Newsweek Magazine called him a "tireless and independent advocate of energy security" and Esquire Magazine included him in its list of America's Best and Brightest. Dr. Luft has published numerous studies and articles in various newspapers and publications. He is co-author of Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (2009,) Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice (2009,) Petropoly: The Collapse of America's Energy Security Paradigm (2012) and De-dollarization: The revolt against the dollar and the rise of a new financial world order (2019). He is author of Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq (2010), and Silk Road 2.0: US Strategy toward China's Belt and Road Initiative (2017) . He appears frequently in the media and advisees various think tanks and corporations worldwide. He holds a doctorate in strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS,) Johns Hopkins University.

Well it seems old Gal monetized some or all of that expertise, according to the indictment in United States v. Luft.  In doing so, by the way, he's opened the entire institute up to a charge that its operating for private benefit.  Here is a pretty good summary from the NY Times:

He was detained by law enforcement officials in Cyprus in February in connection with the [then unsealed] indictment, but fled after being freed on bond while awaiting extradition. If convicted, he faces up to 100 years in prison.  “He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies,” said Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, adding: “He acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil, and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement.” 

Mr. Luft, prosecutors said, helped Chinese arms manufacturers sell anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers and mortar rounds to Libya (he referred to them as toys in communications obtained by the government), bombs and rockets to the United Arab Emirates and military drones to Kenya. He told an associate that the unwillingness of U.S. officials to sell weapons to Kenya provided them with an “opportunity” for profit, prosecutors said.

He also carved out a role as a middleman in transactions to broker sales of oil from Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions, ordering a business associate to refer to the products as Brazilian petroleum, the government charged. In one instance, Mr. Luft received a letter telling him explicitly that a shipment of the oil was Iranian but that it should be “be presented as U.A.E. origin without Iranian papers,” according to the filing.

At the same time, he was using his post as co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Gaithersburg, Md., to exert political influence on behalf of Beijing, according to the Justice Department.  

In late 2016, Mr. Luft recruited and paid an unnamed former U.S. government official who was acting as an adviser for President-elect Donald J. Trump as part of a larger effort to “publicly support certain policies” favorable to China, prosecutors wrote in their filing.

darryll k. jones