Former SPLC director arrested for paying neo-Nazis
The FBI has arrested Heidi Beirich, former SPLC director, accused of diverting donations to white supremacist groups. The case reopens the debate over NGO funding.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Former SPLC director arrested for diverting donations to the very groups she exposed
Heidi Beirich built her career pointing the finger at hate groups in the United States. Now she is the one under arrest. The former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) tracking project was arrested in California, accused of overseeing secret payments to informants inside white supremacist groups, one of whom, according to the charges, was her partner. The Department of Justice argues that the program defrauded donors who never knew their money was ending up in the coffers of the very enemy the NGO claimed to fight.
A tidy business: living off the enemy you fund
The case has an irony no screenwriter could have invented. The SPLC's thesis was that hate is fought with research and monitoring. The reality, according to the charges, is that part of the funding was allegedly used to keep the very groups the organization targeted alive and active. If your livelihood depends on denouncing extremists, it helps if the extremists keep existing. The solution, allegedly, was to pay them with donors' money.
The Spanish echo: public grants and sham organizations
The case has peine in Spain an uncomfortable question about the business model of certain NGOs and foundations linked to political parties. Entities allegedly tied to the PSOE (Spain's Socialist Party) have been mentioned, including some connected to Ábalos and Leire Diez, receiving public grants with questionable activity to show for it. The American case serves as a mirror: when the funding depends on the existence of an enemy, the enemy becomes an asset to be preserved. The difference is that there the FBI acts; here, for now, there are only headlines.
Beirich's arrest does not turn every NGO into a scam, but it forces the question of how many "do-good businesses" depend on evil never ending. The unsettling detail: the expert in unmasking extremists allegedly lived with and had a relationship with one of her informants. Pending the legal process, the presumption of innocence stands. But trust in the hate industry, no longer.
Heidi Beirich built her career pointing the finger at hate groups in the United States. Now she is the one under arrest. The former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) tracking project was arrested in California, accused of overseeing secret payments to informants inside white supremacist groups, one of whom, according to the charges, was her partner. The Department of Justice argues that the program defrauded donors who never knew their money was ending up in the coffers of the very enemy the NGO claimed to fight.
A tidy business: living off the enemy you fund
The case has an irony no screenwriter could have invented. The SPLC's thesis was that hate is fought with research and monitoring. The reality, according to the charges, is that part of the funding was allegedly used to keep the very groups the organization targeted alive and active. If your livelihood depends on denouncing extremists, it helps if the extremists keep existing. The solution, allegedly, was to pay them with donors' money.
The Spanish echo: public grants and sham organizations
The case has peine in Spain an uncomfortable question about the business model of certain NGOs and foundations linked to political parties. Entities allegedly tied to the PSOE (Spain's Socialist Party) have been mentioned, including some connected to Ábalos and Leire Diez, receiving public grants with questionable activity to show for it. The American case serves as a mirror: when the funding depends on the existence of an enemy, the enemy becomes an asset to be preserved. The difference is that there the FBI acts; here, for now, there are only headlines.
Beirich's arrest does not turn every NGO into a scam, but it forces the question of how many "do-good businesses" depend on evil never ending. The unsettling detail: the expert in unmasking extremists allegedly lived with and had a relationship with one of her informants. Pending the legal process, the presumption of innocence stands. But trust in the hate industry, no longer.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (12 replies).
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