Special to WorldTribune.com

Corporate WATCH

By Joe Schaeffer

A globalist Swamp think tank is at the very heart of the latest impeachment coup against President Trump. And it’s uncanny how many prominent anti-America First dots are circling its orbit.

What can you say about an organization that brings together George Soros, the Clintons, leading defense contractors, a powerful lobbying firm that employs ex-House speaker John Boehner and notoriously biased media outlets such as CNN and Reuters, all under the same umbrella?

The Atlantic Council‘s commitment to globalism is at the core of its mission statement. “Through the papers we write, the ideas we generate, and the communities we build, the Council shapes policy choices and strategies to create a more secure and prosperous world,” the group says of itself.

Preserving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and fostering a Cold War-era hostility to Russia are among its chief priorities. So it is no surprise that the Council is thoroughly engaged in Ukraine. With the Deep State’s attempts to first initiate a coup against President Trump via claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election having proven a dismal failure, the defenders of entrenched New World Order globalism in the U.S. government have now turned to Ukraine in a second attempt to oust the despised outsider in the White House. And Atlantic Council personnel are front and center in the effort.

Acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, billed by The New York Times as a “model diplomat,” has provided crucial testimony to congressional Democrats pursuing impeachment over Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. As Breitbart reported on Oct. 23, Taylor has a long relationship with the Atlantic Council. Taylor has written “Ukraine policy pieces with the organization’s director and analysis articles published by the Council,” Breitbart reports.

The Council is funded by and partners with Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid Joe Biden’s son Hunter $83,000 a month to serve as a consultant, despite the younger Biden having no experience whatsoever in the energy industry. Leftist establishment media outlet NPR has reported on Burisma’s extensive ties to the organization. Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky “continues to buy favor with his support for the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank,” NPR reported on Oct. 4.

“Kurt Volker, who resigned last week as the Trump administration’s special representative for Ukraine, is a senior adviser to the Atlantic Council. Volker’s role in the administration’s communications with Ukraine’s new government is now under scrutiny in Congress,” NPR stated.

“In September 2018, Vadym Pozharskiy, an adviser to Burisma’s board, attended Atlantic Council events in New York and met with Volker and former State Department officials, according to the company’s website.”

Beyond Burisma lie even more disturbing Atlantic Council confederates. The think tank has publicly declared its great debt to progressive globalist billionaire George Soros. “Soros’ political and strategic philanthropy is an inspirational example of how one man’s vision and unflagging commitment to the open society ideal can change the lives of millions,” the Council gushed in a 2015 article on its website simply titled “Thank You, George!”

“Soros has become one of the world’s most ardent advocates of the new Ukraine,” the article states.

Soros’s Open Society Foundations is listed as one of the top donors to the Atlantic Council, coming in under the $250,000-$499,000 category in the Council’s “Honor Roll of Contributors” for the 2018 fiscal year.

In that same high-dollar category one finds the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Pinchuk is a Ukrainian billionaire oligarch. He is listed as a member of the Atlantic Council’s “International Advisory Board.” According to the Council, the board is “a uniquely influential group of global business and policy leaders who provide perspectives to the Atlantic Council’s president and board. A further goal from its first annual meeting in 2007 has been to bring the group’s wisdom to Washington and to provide its members with access to leading US thinkers and policy makers.”

One leading U.S. political family that Pinchuk has gained “access to” is the Clintons. Pinchuk’s foundation is listed in the staggering $10-$25 million range of donors on the Clinton Foundation website.

The Atlantic Council’s corporate partners also make for an intriguing bunch. Under “Corporate Membership,” one can find top defense contractors such as General Atomics Aeronautical, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies. Then there is Squire Patton Boggs, a powerful D.C. lobbyist firm that employs former Republican House speaker Boehner. His bio page at the firm is particularly nauseating:

“Speaker Boehner joined the team during the autumn of 2016, making Squire Patton Boggs the only public policy firm in the world with a former US House Speaker and a former US Senate Majority Leader (Senator Trent Lott), with a best-in-class team that includes former Senator John Breaux, Representative Jack Kingston and Rodney Slater, who served as Secretary of Transportation under President Bill Clinton.”

Squire Patton Boggs has lobbied on behalf of communist China. Boehner strongly advocated for improved relations with China during his years in Congress and supported granting Most Favored Nation trade status to the communist regime in the 1990s. This is the epitome of Swamp culture on full display.

Other eye-opening Council corporate partners include Thomson Reuters, Penguin Random House and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Oddly standing out among the globalist linchpins are seemingly benign brands such as Hanes, MetLife and Saab automobiles.

The interconnectivity at work here is fascinating. Let’s take a look at how it plays out in real life. Hanes is a member of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. In a publicly released letter in March 2018, that organization ripped Trump’s potential use of tariffs in pursuit of a more level trade field with China. “Such tariff increases would hurt U.S. consumers, U.S. workers, and U.S. companies,” the letter said, Reuters reported.

“Steve Lamar, executive vice president of the AAFA, said that because tariffs are already high on products like shoes, companies could be forced to either raise prices or reduce their American workforce if faced with increased taxes,” the Reuters article continues.

“We’re hearing about this form all of our members,” Lamar said, Reuters dutifully reported. “Our phones are ringing off the hook.”

To recap: Ostensibly neutral journalists at Reuters report that companies ostensibly worried about the U.S. economy like Hanes oppose Trump’s tariffs on China because they will hurt American workers. All while being part of the same globalist circle. See how it works?

As for Penguin Random House, the publisher is most recently best known for handing Barack and Michelle Obama a whopping $65 million book deal in 2017 despite that figure making absolutely no sense whatsoever from a business standpoint. As Publishers Weekly reported at the time:

“Still other insiders said that fathoming the math is impossible, since the sum PRH paid is itself so far from the norm. As one foreign rights associate put it: ‘We’re all so blown away by the numbers on this deal that the sky’s the limit, right?’ She went on, ‘I’ve rarely seen seven-figure deals abroad, but these numbers are new to the game.'”

Going back to that Honor Roll of 2018 contributors to the Atlantic Council, one finds more astonishing names. Facebook is listed at the very highest category, the $1 million-plus listing. Other corporate donors strangely include brands such as Nestle, Starbucks and Total Wine.

But amid the vast list the name CNN jumps out. The 24-hour Trump-bashing cable “news” network is listed in the substantial $100,000-$249,999 category. CNN gave a six-figure donation to the Atlantic Council in 2018. Discovery Communications, Google and Twitter are also in that same high-dollar grouping.

On Oct. 24, The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis reported that CNN failed to disclose that a former U.S. diplomat to Ukraine who avidly defended Joe Biden’s dealings in that nation in an interview with the network is a top Atlantic Council member. John Herbst is the Eurasia Center director for the Council. The group even touted the segment on its website. Watching it while knowing that both Burisma and CNN are financial donors to the Atlantic Council makes for a particularly outrageous example of Fake News in action.

What an amazing coincidence that all these key players tirelessly pushing the impeachment narrative are tied to the same globalist think tank whose members are providing testimony against the president and using their status as current or former diplomats to very publicly denounce him. One would almost think it’s a conspiracy.

Joe Schaeffer is the former Managing Editor of The Washington Times National Weekly Edition. His columns appear at WorldTribune.com, LibertyNation.com and FreePressInternational.org.