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Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, details began to emerge about the CIAs covert role in using art as a tool for political ends during the Cold War. The policyknown as "long leash"was initiated to showcase the creativity of American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko in the face of "rigid" Soviet artistic constraints.

The United States government wanted to use the soft power of modern American art to combat Communism. Among the most effective of these initiatives was the Congress for Cultural Freedom which funded a number of cultural projects including a major exhibition titled "The New American Painting" that toured Europe in the late 1950s.

Suspicions about the almost sudden spread and funding of American art movements such as Abstract Expressionism led critic Max Kozloff to describe it in a 1973 essay as "a form of benevolent propaganda." But while much is known about CIA funding for American art during the Cold War, their support for Arab art during the same period has rarely been discussed.

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In his 2013 book America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East, Hugh Wilford documents the extent of the relationship between the spy agency and a "pro-Arabist" organization known as the American Friends of the Middle East (AFME).

One of the 24 Americans that founded the AFME in 1951 was Kermit Roosevelt Jr., a career intelligence officer who played a leading role in the CIA-backed coup to remove the democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953.

Unlike the Congress for Cultural Freedom, however, the AFMEs goals were primarily internal, seeking to get the truth about the Middle East before the American public," according to its first annual report. Wilfords book notes that Roosevelt channeled the CIA funding to the AFME to "foster American appreciation for Arab society and culture, and to counteract the pro-Israel influence of US Zionists on American foreign policy regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict."

A man walks past "Baghdadiat" by Jewad Selim at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha December 14, 2010. Selim was one of a number of Arab artists promoted in the U.S. by the AFME. REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous

The financing allowed the AFME to conduct numerous non-oil and trade activities including funding student exchanges, lectures, promoting diplomatic ties and holding cultural activities. The AFME soon established a Department of Intercultural Relations that oversaw the funding of art exhibitions and visits by Arab artists to the U.S..

In 1954, the AFME funded a major touring exhibition, lecture series and media appearances by Jewad Selim, one of Iraq's most celebrated artists, which saw 21 paintings and drawings and seven sculptures flown in from Baghdad and displayed in the L. D. M. Sweat Museum in Portland, Maine, the de Braux Gallery in Philadelphia, the Bellefield Avenue Gallery in Pittsburgh and the headquarters of the Mid-western office in Chicago.

The tour finished with an exhibition at the AFME's newly leased headquarters, which was known as Middle East House in New York City (the AFME eventually relocated to Washington D.C. in 1958). Selim sold a number of works in the U.S. and gave a painting titled "Woman with Watermelon to Middle East House" that was then hung in their offices.

In 1955, the AFME organized four art exhibitions by Middle Eastern artists including Syria's Fateh Moudarres, Egypt's Jirair Palamoudian and Salah Taher, who was then director of the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art. Iranian, Turkish and Pakistani artists were also recipients of AFME's largess.

In fact in 1957-58 the AFME sent Pakistani art to Baghdad and Tehran in what appears to be an attempt to improve relations between Americas regional allies. The AFME was particularly active in the year 1962-63 as it provided "assistance in scheduling interesting exhibitions" to galleries in New York, Minneapolis, Evanston, San Francisco, Spokane and Pittsburgh.

"Woman selling material" (1953) by Iraqi artist Jewad Selim was amongst the works exhibited by AFME in the US. Bonhams

In 1965 the AFME funded exhibitions by Iraqi photographer Latif Al Ani, paintings by Tunisia's Jalal Gharbi, etchings by Sudan's Mohamed Omar Khalil and Hassan Bedawi Omar along with pottery work by Nasif Ishag George. The following year the AFME organized an exhibition of paintings and sketches of female Iraqi artist Widad Al-Azzawi Al-Orfali and her compatriot Faik Hassan at Middle East House.

The AFME funded many more art exhibitions including for Syrian artists Louay Kayyali and Mamdouh Kashlan but not all of them were documented in detail. For instance the 1967, AFME Annual Report states that it funded "exhibitions of Iraq's leading painter and seven other artists" although none are explicitly named.

These exhibitions would attract a range of people, including writers, intellectuals and celebrities as well as diplomats including ambassadors from Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia. It is worth noting that these artists were most likely unaware of any CIA connection to the support that their exhibitions would receive.

It is unclear exactly how much CIA money ended up at the AFME officially its funding came from numerous sources, including oil giant Saudi ARAMCO, with an impressive budget that peaked in 1955 at $500,000 (the equivalent of $4.4 million in 2016).

A 1967 New York Times article uncovering CIA funding was a blow to the AFME, but the U.S. government's support for Arab art has continued to the present day under the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs although its goals have drastically changed.

A recent study by the RAND Corporation titled "Artists and the Arab Uprisings" notes that the previous two U.S. administrations identified the "role that cultural outreach can play in achieving the long-term U.S. goals of combating extremism and promoting democracy and reform in the region."

The AFME changed its name to AMIDEAST in the 1970s, but in its two decades of existence as the AFME it played a major role in showcasing Arab art to an American audience. Some of the artists supported by the AFMEsuch as Iraqs Jewad Selim, who in 1959 designed the iconic Monument for Freedom in Baghdadwent on to play significant roles in the contemporary art movements of their respective countries and beyond.

Furthermore, it appears that most of the exhibitions that were funded were targeted inward at an American audience, in a way making them a reverse "form of benevolent propaganda" by using the work of modern Arab artists to build stronger cultural bonds.

Today, however, we see a plethora of exhibitions including Barjeel Art Foundations 2017 hat trick displays at Yale University Art Gallery, the Hessel Museum of Art and the Katzen Arts Center at the American University. These shows highlighting Arab art are being showcased in an increasingly inward-looking United States. But this time they are largely funded not by the CIA, but the Arab world itself.

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a UAE based writer and founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation.

More:
How the CIA Secretly Funded Arab Art to Fight Communism - Newsweek

A popular new book intended to teach children about communism is an example of academia out of control.

So say some conservatives about Communism for Kids, a book published by Cambridge-based MIT Press that seeks to present political theory in the simple terms of a childrens story.

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The book, which currently ranks among Amazons top-sellers in the category of Communism & Socialism, was written by Bini Adamczak, a Berlin-based social theorist and artist. Predictably, its being excoriated by the likes of Breitbart News, which claims the book sugarcoats a pernicious political theory.

Wrote OneNewsNow, part of the Christian American Family News Network: MIT Press one of the most prominent university publishers in the US is publishing the book titled Communism for Kids that instructs American youth to shun the economic system that has made their country the most powerful economic force on the planet ... and embrace a system that has resulted in poverty and millions of deaths worldwide over the past century.

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Um, not exactly, says MIT Press Director Amy Brand, who told Publishers Weekly that response is a reminder of the polarizing power of ideas and words and the serious responsibility of being in a profession dedicated to protecting fundamental freedoms of expression.

Brand was traveling Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

The publishers website certainly makes Communism for Kids sound innocuous, saying it merely proposes a different kind of communism, one that is true to its ideals and free from authoritarianism. The story, featuring jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses, and tired workers, is accompanied by illustrations of lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening.

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Local publisher catching flack for kids book about communism - The ... - The Boston Globe

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Quiz on Communist films: communism in cinema - The Hindu The Hindu 'Communist films' might bring to mind propaganda films of USSR. But much after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, many filmmakers across the world have made ... Gimme red: What is behind the craze for Communist themes in ...Scroll.in all 3 news articles »

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Quiz on Communist films: communism in cinema - The Hindu - The Hindu

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BY: Elizabeth Harrington April 18, 2017 5:00 am

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is blasting MIT Press for its new book Communism for Kids, arguing the book "whitewashes" a deadly ideology that has led to the deaths of 100 million people.

MIT Press recently published the book, written by German author Bini Adamczak, which uses cartoon drawings of "lovable little revolutionaries" arguing capitalism is evil and communism is "not that hard."

In a letter sent to Amy Brand, the director of MIT Press, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation said the university would be better served exposing the dangers of communist ideologies.

"While I can imagine a book so titled that would make a valuable contribution to a reader's understanding of the truth about communism, the book MIT Press published is not it," wrote Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, in a letter last week. "Communism for Kids whitewashes and infantilizes ideas that, when put into action, have cost more than 100 million lives."

Smith noted that 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the start of the first communist regime. "It is a fitting time to teach people about an ideology that so dramatically shaped the 20th century and continues to shape the 21st," he said.

Communism for Kids claims to offer a "different kind of communism" that is "free from authoritarianism" using fairy tales with "jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses, and tired workers."

The book makes no mention of brutal dictators such as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Tse Tungs "Great Leap Forward" in China, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Cuba, all who are responsible for the deaths of millions.

"That collectivism ends in dictatorship is overwhelmingly evident," Smith said. "Take Venezuela, whose experiment in democratic socialism began in 1999. With each passing year, what was once one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America becomes poorer; what was once a free country becomes more and more repressive. Whether in Lenin's Soviet Union or Maduro's Venezuela 100 years later, collectivist policies must be coercively implemented and enforced."

"Marxists, such as the book's author, often say true' communism has never been tried," Smith continued. "This assertion is on par with denying the violence inherent in the ideas of Nazism. Communism has been tried in more than 40 countries, and each time results in the worst and widest scale of human rights abuses known to man."

"There is no different kind of communism, one that is true to its ideals and free from authoritarianism,'" Smith said, quoting from the description of the book by MIT Press. "We will not tolerate denying the history of Nazism. Nor will we tolerate obfuscating the crimes of communist regimes."

Communism for Kids, which sells for $12.95, claims to present communist political theory in "the simple terms of a children's story," by using "illustrations of lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening."

Smith says the book only enables Marxists to rewrite history by hiding the brutal realities under communist regimes.

"Far from providing a political awakening,' by publishing Communism for Kids, a book utterly devoid of any awareness of politics and history, MIT Press has furthered the efforts of communist ideologues to spin a tale of false hope and to deny the reality that communism leads not to a better world, but to a dreadful one," he said.

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Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Blasts 'Communism for ... - Washington Free Beacon

Since MSNBCs Rachel Maddow is still preoccupied with the supposed influence of Russia on President Donald Trump and the American political process, we suggest that the publication of a new book called Communism for Kids by MIT Press is worthy of her attention. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian revolution, this book offers a glimpse into an uprising that was global in scope and which has not only destroyed the moral fiber of Russia, but has also done enormous damage to America.

The author of Communism for Kids, Bini Adamczak, writes that the Russian revolution instilled new hope, particularly in women and people who did not identify themselves within the hetero-normative paradigm. The destruction of the family, she writes, was the goal. With the revolution, the right to legal abortion, both sexes right to divorce, the decriminalization of adultery, and the annulment of the sodomy law (which had previously prohibited homosexuality) were implemented and enforced, she explains.

In Moscow, one could find international communes led by gay communists, she says. Drag kings could become legitimate members of the Red Army. Participants of the revolutionary debates decided upon the destruction of the family, demanded the legalization of incest, and advertised the practice [of] polygamy.

Queer communism is the battle cry of these modern Marxists, who label themselves Queer communists and identify with the origins of the Russian revolution.

Its doubtful that Maddow, despite her obsession with Russia, will turn to this fascinating topic, since she is one of the liberal medias open advocates of the homosexual lifestyle. She is a favorite of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), which now calls itself the Association of LGBTQ Journalists.

On Thursday, in New York City, CNNs Don Lemon will host a star-studded event for the NLGJA designed to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the organizations programs. More than 350 journalists, news executives, dignitaries and allies attend this event each year in what has become one of New York Citys must-attend media events, the advertisement for NLGJA says.

The corporate media sponsors include Comcast/NBC Universal, Fox News, ABC News, CNN, CBS News and the New York Post.

Despite the virtual integration of the corporate media and the gay rights movement here in the U.S., Communism for Kids author Bini Adamczak writes that more advances have to be made in the field of queer politics, using the strategies of Marxist revolution. Eventually, she says, modern reproduction technologies could be used to completely abolish the sexes.

Transgender liberation is the next major frontier. She notes that In her autobiographically inspired novel Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg grants readers a powerful insight into the connectedness of queer politics. Feinberg, a Marxist member of the Workers World Party, was identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist. Her last words before she died were, Remember me as a revolutionary communist. Hasten the revolution!

Another prominent advocate of transgender liberation is Bradley/Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army analyst sentenced to prison for espionage for his/her collaboration in the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of top secret intelligence reports. Former President Obama commuted Mannings sentence, which was originally 35 years in prison for espionage, and he/she will now be released on May 17, after only seven years in prison. Manning was an open homosexual in the Army before deciding to become a woman.

WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service, declared President Trumps new CIA director, Mike Pompeo. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information. And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations.

Yet Pompeo has not indicated whether the lax rules that are in place at the CIA and other intelligence agencies, permitting mentally disordered and confused transgender individuals to gain employment and get top secret security clearances, will be changed.

It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really isa non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia, Pompeo said. In January of this year, our Intelligence Community determined that Russian military intelligencethe GRUhad used WikiLeaks to release data of U.S. victims that the GRU had obtained through cyber operations against the Democratic National Committee. And the report also found that Russias primary propaganda outlet, RT, has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks.

In his article for AIM, CIA Funding and Recruiting LGBT, Alex Nitzberg wrote about how the CIA maintains its own employee organization called ANGLE, which stands for the Agency Network for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Officers and Allies. Last December 16, the CIA itself announced that ANGLE had received an award for promoting LGBT issues.

Obamas CIA Director John O. Brennan was quoted as saying, It is difficult to overstate how heartening this progress has been to me. Indeed, one of the highlights of my tenure has been seeing the LGBT community blossom under the leadership of ANGLE and its cadre of devoted alliesa group to which I proudly belong.

Brennan was also an ally of Muslim and pro-communist CIA employees. He personally voted communist before joining the agency in 1980.

The CIA has released a documentary ANGLE of Ascent, highlighting the key role CIA leaders have played in building inclusive environments and focusing on the cultural shift that occurred within the Agency since the signing of Executive Order 12968, which gave LGBT officers the right to obtain a security clearance and serve openly in the Federal Government.

The CIA exists to gather and assess intelligence in order to protect Americas national security, wrote Nitzberg. Americans must decide whether they believe the CIAs involvement in recruiting from and funding LGBT events serves to advance those objectives.

But Americans are not given the opportunity to pass judgement because they are kept in the dark by elements of the news media in bed with the homosexual and transgender movements. As part of this collusion, Pompeo will be encouraged to continue Brennans pro-LGBT policies at the CIA. He will be threatened with the charge of homophobia if he decides to return the CIA to its mission of protecting Americas secrets.

Dari Alexander, WNYW; Jason Bellini, The Wall Street Journal; Gio Benitez, ABC News; Dan Bowens, WNYW; Frank Bruni, The New York Times; Kenneth Craig, CBS News; John Bannon Dias, News 12; Willie Geist, MSNBC; Kendis Gibson, ABC News; Sunny Hostin, The View; Preston Konrad, celebrity stylist; Steve Lacy, WNYW; Brett Larson, FOX News Headlines 24/7; Kyle Marimon, Fresco News; Jared Max, FOX News Headlines 24/7; John Meyer, Fresco News; Michael Musto, OUT.com; Court Passant, CBS Corporation; Lydia Polgreen, The Huffington Post; Caroline Que, The New York Times; Gus Rosendale, WNBC; Carolyn Ryan, The New York Times; Michelangelo Signorile, SiriusXM; Baruch Shemtov, WNYW; Lauren Simonetti, FOX Business Network; Steve Sosna, NBC4; Joanna Stern, The Wall Street Journal; Joe Toohey, WNYW; Kris Van Cleave, CBS News; and Jana Winter, investigative reporter.

Link:
Queer Communism Finds its Voice - Accuracy In Media