I missed this segment on Countdown the other night, but happened across the same information related to a bigger research project I'm working on. Even for a conservative organization, Steven Emerson has really gone beyond the norm here.

Emerson is the sole director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation. Its stated purpose is as follows:

RESEARCHED AND EXPOSED THE ACTIVITIES OF TERRORIST NETWORKS AND SUPPORTERS IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD AND EDUCATED THE PUBLIC ABOUT THIS THREAT THROUGH THE DISSEMINATION OF EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION.

According to the 990, program expenses related to that purpose for 2008 were $2,373,000.00. That seemed excessive to me, particularly for an organization that's fairly low profile, so I decided to look a little further. Interestingly, the biggest expense for the organization was...

This non-profit took in donations of $1,884,000 in 2008. It paid out $3,390,000 in expenses. All expenses were paid to:

That's right. SAE Enterprises, solely owned by Steven Emerson, terrorism expert. Here's a few other little factoids. In his narrative submitted to the IRS for approval of non-profit status, he explains the relationship this way:

If I understand this correctly, SAE Enterprises is a not-for-profit entity but won't be tax-exempt in order to "maximize fundraising" (translated, make big donations tax-deductible) to add "an additional layer of security" for Emerson (the only staff I'm aware of at SAE).

It's all very cloak and dagger, but really, it certainly appears to be a straightforward abuse of the laws around tax-exempt organizations. Whatever Emerson's credentials are, I'm dubious about them being worth $3.4 million and even more dubious about this whole arrangement.

I'm curious to know who the donors are, too. Haven't found them in my other research, but I'm still looking. Of course, I'm also looking for Emerson's background and what exactly qualifies him to be a 'terrorism expert'. Other than serving as a director alongside Elliott Abrams for the Middle East Media Research Institute, I'm having trouble identifying his bona fides with regard to Middle East expertise. His Wikipedia entry is quite sanitized compared to other information on the internet about his journalistic integrity.

More from Tennessean.com, who originally broke the story earlier in the week, and Emerson's reply.

Great work if you can get it. If I start fearmongering about terrorism here on the blog, will you all send millions for me to keep it up?

What do you do when you live in Kansas, are the twin sons of disgraced Kansas Congressman Jim Ryun and you have access to a whole lot of money? What else? Start a non-profit organization to raise up a 'grassroots army'.

Meet American Majority, the newest right wing non-profit on the block. If you actually click that link you'll get a big overlay asking "Do you want your country back?" American Majority was born in 2008 (keep that date in mind), and its stated purpose is as follows:

American Majority, Inc.s' purpose is to create a national political training institute dedicated to recruiting, identifying, training and mentoring potential political leaders. More particularly, the organization is a, non-partisan political training institute whose mission is to train and equip a national network of leadership committed to individual freedom through limited government and the free market. Advocating true federalism, toward that end, the organization intends to build a national network of leaders and grassroots advocates who aspire to increase freedom for individuals and freedom and in the marketplace.

One weakness in their training materials has already emerged, as their Kansas field director evidently interpreted freedom for individuals and freedom in the marketplace to mean freedom to inject the Tea Party into a pitch for Google fiber.

One pass through their site and any thinking human being knows it's about as libertarian as my left foot. It's a Republican agitation arm disguised with some plasticky-looking grass on it. Before their first Texas training session in 2009, Drew Ryun sat down for an interview with the Dallas News. I appreciate his candor, and you will too.

A month after President Barack Obama took office in January, Drew Ryun moved to Texas and began organizing the state office of American Majority.

That would have been around what? February 2009? What took so long?

According to American Majority's 990 filing for 2008, they'd conducted 9 training sessions in Kansas, 4 in Louisiana, 4 in Minnesota, and 6 in Oklahoma by December 31, 2008. It doesn't take a math genius to figure out they were around before Barack Obama was elected in November, 2008. And if they were around before the general election, who were they training and for what purpose? And...who is funding them?

It's that last question that piqued my curiosity. Drew Ryun helps to answer the first part of it in the Dallas News article:

Ryun estimates that "above 75 percent" of American Majority's funding comes from the Sam Adams Alliance, a conservative think tank in Chicago. In return for their tax-exempt status, American Majority and the Sam Adams Alliance are required to make their income tax returns available to the public.

Who is the Sam Adams Alliance?

You may recognize the name if you've visited any Tea Party sites. Their logo usually rests alongside those of FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, and other Republican sponsors.

Here are some facts about the Sam Adams Alliance published late in 2009:

The president of Sam Adams Alliance is John Tsarpalas, former executive director of the Illinois State Republican party. Eric O'Keefe, SAA's chairman and CEO, is a former executive director of the National Libertarian Party. He once worked for Citizens for Congressional Reform (pdf), a project of David Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy. Along with noted Libertarian financier Howard Rich, O'Keefe sits on the board of directors of Americans for Limited Government.

Shortly before online activist Eric Odom helped kick-start the Tea Party movement, he was new media director for Sam Adams Alliance. This put him in charge of (among other things) setting up websites, coordinating Facebook groups, managing Twitter accounts and other social networking tasks. Odom's first known acts as a Tea Partier were to set up the OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com site and Facebook pages within hours of Rick Santelli's February rant, then spreading word through Twitter, initially utilizing #TCOT, a Twitter list and hashtag for Top Conservatives on Twitter.

Since their last tax filing in November 2009, they've added a new director. His name is Denis Calabrese. From his bio page:

Denis served as Washington D.C. Chief-of-Staff for the now retired Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Richard Armey.

In the world of non-profits, large donors like to be on the board to oversee the donation they've given. In the past, the Sam Adams Alliance hasn't been a major player. In 2006 direct public support was $401,500. 2007 gifts and grants appear to be 1,822,458, but there are some discrepancies from one year to the next.

But in 2008, donations increased by a factor of ten. Total gifts and grants were $4,222,604. Denis Calabrese joins the board, and coincidentally happens to be Dick Armey's former chief of staff, and donations bloom into full-throated support for offshoots like America's Majority? Ah, the smell of astroturf in the spring.

Of the $4.2 million, $3.7 million was an "unusual grant".

Ordinarily, funds passing from one non-profit to another are listed on the donor's tax disclosures as a grant or gift. Unfortunately, in this case the identity of the donor is unknown, because the Sam Adams Alliance believes in free speech rights and intentionally conceals the identity of their donors. Why are they ashamed to admit who their donors are? What's bad about promoting liberty, small government, American values?

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After 30 long years of Reagan-inspired hatred of government services, we're seeing the policies come to their logical conclusion. Because we didn't so much cut the size of government as we outsourced it. Most people are oblivious to the fact that large numbers of government social services were simply contracted out to local non-profits because it meant towns, cities and states didn't have to pay for the additional benefits of a government employee to do that job.

And now, anyone in need of those services is screwed - because those agencies aren't getting paid:

SCO Family of Services, a nonprofit agency based on Long Island, started the year with a $25 million credit line at its bank, which it planned to use to pay its bills while awaiting government reimbursements and donations.

Now, after its bank has cut its credit line twice and withdrawn a promise to support a critical bond offering, the organization is worried about whether it can pay its employees this month.

“I spend a good part of my day every day just trying to manage cash flow,” said Johanna Richman, chief financial officer at SCO, which provides services to children with developmental disabilities.

SCO is one of hundreds of charities caught in the credit crunch as skittish banks reduce their lines of credit or cut them off entirely at a time when the need for their services is climbing sharply, nonprofit leaders say.

“While nonprofits are working feverishly to accommodate increased demand, they are facing severe financial constraints that are threatening their ability to go on, much less expand their services,” said Diana Aviv, president and chief executive of Independent Sector, a nonprofit trade association.

Almost three-quarters of nonprofits in the United States receive some type of government financing, according to new research by the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and about half of those count on that aid for at least half of their budgets.

As a growing number of states delay payment, nonprofits must rely on lines of credit to help them get by. In Illinois, the state is running as much as 150 days late in making reimbursements, and California has told nonprofits to expect i.o.u.’s in lieu of payment starting next month.

Lindsay checks out the story which has non-profits terrified.