How do I find out who or what group sponsers www.votetoimpeach.org ? 
Checking to see who owns the site name shows me nothing. What are
their political affiliations?  Are their possible agendas that go
beyond stopping the war?
Are there specific groups with specific political agendas who sponser
and pay for the expenses connected with the big anti-war rallies in
San Fancisco, New York and other major cities?  (I have seen some of
the same people at different rallies).  Are some of these rallies and
sites sponsored by other countries?

---

Request for Question Clarification by tisme-ga on 25 Mar 2003 18:23 PST

Hello schmooz,

Your questions are interesting and researchers could certainly do some
research for you. Unfortunately, the answers we could provide you
would hardly be anything concrete.

For example, the website does not list any information affiliating
itself with any specific organization, and its registration
information appears to be fake. As for their political affiliation, I
could only guess at that. I don't think one needs to assume that their
agenda (at least on that specific website) goes beyond stopping the
war. There are people in the US and all over the world who strongly
oppose the war for many different reasons.

There are specific groups which pay for the anti war rallies, but most
of these groups are grassroots based, and only loosely connected to
other groups globally through the internet. They coordinate
demonstrations, but many of the groups have different views: -some
believe that all war is bad (pacifists), -some believe that the war
will cause more problems, -some believe the war is undermining the UN
etc. etc. I would not go as far as to say that these rallies are
sponsored by other countries, although this certainly is a
possibility. Some people (especially speakers) will move from rally to
rally, this also is not anything new, people with strong beliefs will
often devote themselves to a specific cause.

Rallies generally do not need major funding, and there are people with
strong enough beliefs in all countries to make the necessary financial
contributions to make these rallies possible. If you look back in
history, there have always been demonstrations to wars (and indeed
other events) in the US so this really is not anything new.

As you can see, the answer is based much on opinion and it is very
hard to get concrete answers to questions like these. I can assure you
that financial contributions from other countries are not necessary
for the rallies in the United States to happen. There are groups in
the US who have enough money from various sources (both inside and
outside the US) to pay for newspaper and television ads supporting
their cause. Obtaining such financial information from these groups
would be a difficult task. I guess what I am asking you is what type
of answer are you expecting from this question? Before a researcher
attempts to tackle your question, it would really help to know in
detail what you hope to get out of this question.

(By the way, anyone with $50 or less can set up a website like
votetoimpeach.org but without putting their name/organization on it,
most people would not consider it to be reputable)

All the best,

tisme-ga

Dear Schmooz, 

As the commentators mentioned, your questions are very interesting
indeed. As the commentator Jonwoo mentioned, ViteToImpeach.org is
affiliated with a site called "International Answer.org"
<http://www.internationalanswer.org>, "Act Now to Stop War & End
Racism!“ which is an anti-war site (and also involved in organising
the rallies and protests). International-Answer, and their anti-war
activities, is funded by private donations, as their own website tells
us <http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html>.

International Answer, according to the abovementioned page, is funded
by "The People’s Rights Fund". The "People’s Rights Fund sponsors
those projects, which seek to educate the people of the U.S. about the
growing dangers of war, increasing incidents of racial profiling by
the U.S. government, and growing encroachments to civil liberties and
civil rights within the U.S. The People's Rights Fund also sponsors
the production of educational materials, including fact sheets, books,
and videos on these subjects." (Source: International Answer donation
page, <http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html>).

"People's Rights Find" uses this address to collect donations:
People’s Rights Fund, 39 W. 14th St., Rm. 206, New York, N.Y., 10011 .
Further inquiries show, that "The People's Rights Fund, inc., which
was established in 1986, is a not-for-profit foundation. As a
50l(c)(3) foundation,  donations to it are tax-deductible." Both
"International ANSWER" and the IAC enjoy PPF funding
(http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org/cgi-local/SoftCart.100.exe/online-store/scstore/shophome.html?E+scstore).

According to the conservative website FreeRepublic.com, "One can find
who is the primary contact for an internet domain by performing a
whois query against the domain names databases. A whois query on
beatbackbush.org shows that the organization behind the website is
called "World View", and is based in Jersey City, NJ, and lists an
administrative contact of Sara Flounders Kramer. The email address
given for the administrative contact is gery@riseup.net. A whois query
for internationalanswer.org, though, shows the organization to be the
IAC, and provides the same email address for the administrative
contact. Sara Flounders (sans the Kramer surname) is listed as the
administrative and billing contact for the IAC's website. Both
internationalanswer.org and beatbackbush.org are hosted on machines
running in Boca Raton, Florida. The contact for riseup.net, as found
using whois, is Elijah Saxon, who gives his email address as being
from the ucsc.edu domain (University of California, Santa Cruz, where
he is probably an alumni). Saxon also has registered revolt.org, which
says it is part of Global Update, which also has a domain.
globalupdate.org, riseup.net, and revolt.org all indicate that they
operate out of Seattle, Washington." (Source: Free Republic forums,
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bb23a6d6b8a.htm). IAC (The
International Action Centre) was founded by former Attorney General,
Ramsey Clark.

You could find a very interesting chart of Ms. Kramer's social
networks at Namebase.org ,
http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_FLOUNDERS_SARA_ Kramer,
according to other searches, is a left wing journalist and a worker at
Mr Ramsey's IAC.

Free Republic.com also wonders, "Where does the People's Rights Fund
get their money?" and claims "Their website makes no mention. However,
at least part of their funding comes from Fidelity Investment's
Charitable Gift Fund." (ibid).
http://www400.charitablegift.org/annual/recipients/p.shtml

Another ultra-conservative publication, Front Page Magazine, claims
that the "People Rights Fund" once claimed it is a day care centre -
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=3181

VoteToImpeach.org uses the same mailing address as another anti-war
site, VoteNoWar.org:
1901 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 607, Washington, D.C. 20006

The same offices are also used by, Partnership for Civil Justice, who
also organised protests at Bush inauguration speech (see for example:
"A Guide to Effective Participation in the 2001 Inauguration" by
Blazing Tattles
07 January 2001 05:43 UTC,
http://csf.colorado.edu/envtecsoc/2001/msg00002.html).

Partnership for Civil Justice was "The PCJ~LDEF was founded by Carl
Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, experienced civil rights
attorneys practicing in Washington, D.C. The Fund provides and
supports exclusively charitable and educational activities that secure
and advance civil rights under the law, and that work towards the
elimination of discrimination and prejudice."

VoteToImpeace.org is just a case study. Regarding your more general
question on funding of the peace movement, it seems that the movements
enjoy a variety of sources. Some groups are funded by members, others
by donations and funding of other non-profits, the abovementioned
organisations. Such an example might be the site (and movement)
MoveOnPac.org, who managed to rise over a $1 million, through the
site: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43784-2002Oct17
Naturally, I wouldn't also reject an opposite connection: political
parties funding such movements.

I hope this answers your question. My search strategy was a bit
detective-like: first I followed the trace of the site at a whois
service (just like Jonwoo-ga), and found its connection to
"International ANSWER". Then, I searched on "International ANSWER"
with terms such as "funding" and "donation". Finally, I searched for
each name and address that I could find, to find matching (such as the
site's connections to The Partnership for Civil Justice). Naturally, I
also searched for you on the funding of the anti war demonstrations,
with relevant terms. If you need any clarifications on the answer,
please let me know. I'd be pleased to clarify my answer before you
rate it.

I actually did some research into the question and took me some time
but I think I found the answer. I looked up whois information on the
internet but it was obvious that information was false.
Registrant

                   VoteToImpeach.org
                   NYC
                   New York
                   NY
                   US
                   10011

  Administrative Contact

                   VoteToImpeach
                   Vote To Impeach
                   NYC
                   New York (US)
                   10011
                   212
                   N-111434npzs@usersa5.namescout.com

  Technical Contact

                   VoteToImpeach
                   Vote To Impeach
                   NYC
                   New York
                   10011
                   US
                   212
                   N-111434npzs@usersa5.namescout.com

Namescout is the company that registered the domain and host provider
for the site. I contacted Namescout and was told they do not divulge
personal information of their customers. I thought I hit a road block
but then I noticed something strange. Their formmail which is used to
send a letter about impeachment of George W. Bush is not being hosted
on votetoimpeach.org. Their Formmail cgi script was being hosted at
161.58.14.9 or internationalanswer.org. I know something about
formmail and it is that unless webmaster modified the formmail
script(referral section) other sites cannot use that script.
internationalanswer.org modified their formmail script so it will work
with votetoimpeach.org. Internationalanswer.org also states on their
website http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/020403impeach.html
that they are responsible for votetoimpeach.org. Big anti war protests
are usually funded by some these groups but you can't find that
information because most of funds are not disclosed to the public. But
most of the protesters use their money to come to D.C or New York
according to my friends who was at the protest.

I deserve the money but I'm not google researcher but if you want you
can send money to my paypal account.

Here's a very interesting article entitled "Who Pays For These
Demonstrations?"

Frontpage Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5734

Two more articles on this subject:

Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_1711678,00.html

National Review
http://www.nationalreview.com/cohen/cohen103002.asp

It appears that some of these demonstrations have not been
spontaneously generated by gentle people with flowers in their hair.

Re articles found by pinkfreud-ga:

I think that these articles should be taken with a grain of salt,
since they all appear in publications that have conservative slants. 
(For example, the article from FrontPage is accompanied by a call for
a nationwide boycott of "Old Europe" goods.)

Of course, one might argue that the New York Times has a liberal slant
(though it does have both conservative and liberal columnists) when it
publishes a column on how conservative radio stations support the
pro-war rallies:

"Channels of Influence", by Paul Krugman (March 25, 2003)
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/opinion/25KRUG.html

Regarding the group "International  A.N.S.W.E.R.," which claims to be
financed by "private donations," here's another article that my
liberal colleagues will no doubt want to tell you to take with a grain
of salt:

"The major anti-U.S. government demonstrations are organized by people
who have been around for a long time, particularly the Workers World
Party, which has existed for more than 30 years now and has always
supported the enemies of the United States," said Herbert Romerstein,
a retired agent of the U.S. Information Agency.

The Workers World Party describes itself as Marxist in nature.

Officially, protest organizers are groups such as Not in Our Name and
International A.N.S.W.E.R., but the demonstration's sponsors have long
histories of backing anti-government causes.

Not in Our Name is financed by the Interreligious Foundation for
Community Organization. I.F.C.O. is a million-dollar-a-year non-profit
that supports Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and once sponsored a group
headed by Sami Al-Arian — the University of South Florida professor
being charged with fundraising for terrorist organizations Hamas and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A.N.S.W.E.R. is an offshoot of the International Action Center, which
intelligence officials say is a front for the Worker's World Party.

Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81314,00.html