[rad-green] Buttigieg Backer Top Funder of Group Behind Iowa’s Disastrous Voting App

*https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/04/buttigieg-backer-top-funder-of-group-behind-iowas-disastrous-voting-app/
<https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/04/buttigieg-backer-top-funder-of-group-behind-iowas-disastrous-voting-app/>Consortium
News               February 4, 2020*



*Buttigieg Backer Top Funder of Group Behind Iowa’s Disastrous Voting AppA
dark money operation funded by billionaires is behind the app that delayed
Iowa’s voting results. *

*Seth Karman*

*By **Max Blumenthal*
<https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/27/the-other-side-of-john-mccain/>
*The Grayzone
<https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/04/pro-israel-buttigieg-seth-klarman-iowas-voting-app/#more-20231>*

At the time of publication, 12 hours after voting in the Democratic Party’s
Iowa caucuses ended, the results have not been announced. The delay in
reporting is the result of a failed app developed by a company
appropriately named Shadow Inc.

This firm was staffed by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaign veterans
<https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1224579634983063552> and created by a
Democratic dark-money nonprofit backed by hedge fund billionaires including
Seth Klarman. A prolific funder of pro-settler Israel lobby organizations,
Klarman has also contributed directly to Pete Buttigieg’s campaign.

The delay in the vote reporting denied a victory speech to Sen. Bernie
Sanders, the presumptive winner of the opening contest in the Democratic
presidential primary. Though not one exit poll indicated that Buttigieg
would have won, the former mayor South Bend, Indiana,  took to Twitter to
confidently proclaim himself the victor.

Iowa, you have shocked the nation.

By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.
#IowaCaucuses
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/IowaCaucuses?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 4, 2020
<https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1224564353040625665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The bizarre scenario was made possible by a mysterious voting app whose origins
had been kept secret by Democratic National Committee officials
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/dems-iowa-caucus-voting-app-stirs-security-concerns-11580063221?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/l6bfvyOSpT>
. For hours, it was unclear who created the failed technology, or how it
wound up in the hands of Iowa party officials.

Though a dark money Democratic operation turned out to be the source of the
disastrous app, suspicion initially centered on former Hillary Clinton
campaign manager Robby Mook and his Russiagate-related elections integrity
initiative.

*Leveraging Russia Hysteria*

While Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price refused to say who was
behind the failed app, he told NPR
<https://wamu.org/story/20/01/14/despite-election-security-fears-iowa-caucuses-will-use-new-smartphone-app/>
that
he “worked with the national party’s cybersecurity team and Harvard
University’s Defending Digital Democracy project….” Price did not offer
details on his collaboration with the Harvard group, however.

*The New York Times* reported
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/us/politics/iowa-caucuses-hacking-security.html>
that
this same outfit had teamed up with Iowa Democrats to run a “drill of
worst-case scenarios” and possible foreign threats, but was also vague on
details.

Robby Mook, the former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016
presidential campaign, was the co-founder of Defending Digital Democracy.
His initiative arose out of the national freakout over Russian meddling
that he and his former boss helped stir
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-the-russia-spin-got-so-much-torque_b_5906e5f6e4b03b105b44ba15>
when
they blamed their loss on Russian interference. Mook’s new outfit pledged
<https://www.reuters.com/article/cyber-conference-facebook-idCNL1N1KG26G> to
“protect from hackers and propaganda attacks.”

He founded the organization with help from Matt Rhoades, a former campaign
manager for Republican Mitt Romney whose public relations company was sued
by a Silicon Valley investor
<https://www.vox.com/2017/11/6/16616416/shervin-pishevar-definers-public-affairs-lawsuit-republican>
 after it branded him “an agent of the Russian government” and “a friend of
Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Rhoades’s firm had been contracted by a
business rival to destroy the investor’s reputation.

As outrage grew over the delay in Iowa caucus results, Mook publicly denied
any role in designing the notorious app.

You know it’s bad when… https://t.co/oNDQnVPxjR

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) February 4, 2020
<https://twitter.com/franklinleonard/status/1224561744313368577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Hours later, journalist Lee Fang reported
<https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1224561674679488513> that a previously
unknown tech outfit called Shadow Inc. had contracted with the Iowa
Democratic Party to create the failed technology. The firm was comprised of
former staffers for Obama, Clinton and the tech industry, and had been paid
for services by the Buttigieg campaign.

FEC filings show the Iowa Democratic party and Buttigieg campaign paid
Shadow Inc.

*The Path to Mayor Pete’s Wine Cave*

Shadow Inc. was launched
<https://twitter.com/anotheracronym/status/1085934845942026241> by a major
Democratic dark money nonprofit called Acronym, which also gave birth to a
$7.7 million Super PAC known as Pacronym.

According to Sludge
<https://readsludge.com/2020/01/23/hedge-fund-billionaires-power-new-democratic-super-pac/>,
Pacronym’s largest donor is Seth Klarman. A billionaire hedge funder,
Klarman also happens to be a top donor to Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar.

Though he has attracted some attention for his role in the campaign,
Klarman’s prolific funding of the pro-settler Israel lobby and Islamophobic
initiatives has gone almost entirely unmentioned
<https://mondoweiss.net/2018/09/klarman-abandoning-prominent/>.

Seth Klarman is the founder of the Boston-based Baupost Group hedge fund
and a longtime donor to corporate Republican candidates. After Donald Trump
called for forgiving Puerto Rico’s debt, Klarman — the owner of $911
million of the island’s bonds
<https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/20/hedge-fund-billionaire-klarman-says-puerto-rico-should-pay-its-debts.html>
—
flipped and began funding Trump’s opponents.

The billionaire’s crusade against Trump ultimately led him to Mayor Pete’s
wine cave.

By the end of 2019, Klarman had donated
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2019/12/21/here-are-the-billionaires-backing-pete-buttigiegs-presidential-campaign/#349edcf95fc6>
$5,600
to Buttigieg and pumped money into the campaigns of Senators Amy Klobuchar,
Cory Booker and Kamala Harris as well.

The billionaire’s support for centrist candidates appears to be driven not
only by his own financial interests, but by his deep and abiding
ideological commitment to Israel and its expansionist project.

As I reported for Mondoweiss
<https://mondoweiss.net/2013/11/palestinian-billionaire-repressive/>,
Klarman has been a top funder for major Israel lobby outfits, including
those that support the expansion of illegal settlements and Islamophobic
initiatives.

Klarman was the principal funder of The Israel Project, the recently
disbanded
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-lobbys-commando-force-taken-out>
Israeli
government-linked propaganda organization that lobbied against the Iran
nuclear deal and backed the Israeli settlement enterprise.
<https://thinkprogress.org/security/2009/07/08/49918/tip-settlements-manual/>

Klarman has heaped hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Middle East
Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and the American Jewish Committee. And he
funded The David Project, which was established to suppress Palestine
solidarity organizing on campuses across the U.S. and battled to block the
establishment of a Muslim community center in Boston.

Through his support for the Friends of Ir David Inc, Klarman directly
involved himself in the Israeli settlement enterprise, assisting the
U.S.-based tax exempt arm of the organization  that oversaw a wave of
Palestinian expulsions
<https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/jerusalem-city-of-david/> in the occupied
East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

Other pro-Israel groups reaping the benefits of Klarman’s generosity
include Birthright Israel, the AIPAC-founded Washington Institute for Near
East Policy, and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a
neoconservative think tank that helped devise Trump’s “maximum pressure”
campaign of economic warfare on Iran.

Klarman is the owner of the *Times of Israel*, an Israeli media outlet that
once published a call for Palestinian genocide
<https://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/yochanan-genocide-permissible/>. (The op-ed
was removed following public backlash).

In recent weeks, Buttigieg has sought to distinguish himself
<https://www.vox.com/2019/4/3/18293545/pete-buttigieg-democrats-president-israel-omar-palestine>
from
Sanders on the issue of Israel-Palestine. During a testy exchange this
January with a self-proclaimed Jewish supporter of Palestinian human
rights, the South Bend mayor backtracked on a previous pledge to withhold
military aid to Israel if it annexed parts of the West Bank.

NEW: The day after Trump unveiled his plan green-lighting Israeli
annexation and Netanyahu’s announcement of a cabinet vote on annexation
this Tuesday, @PeteButtigieg
<https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> backtracked on his
repeated promise that the "U.S. will not foot the bill for annexation."
#StopFundingOccupation
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopFundingOccupation?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
 pic.twitter.com/dldyRnI5lo <https://t.co/dldyRnI5lo>

— IfNotNow? (@IfNotNowOrg) January 30, 2020
<https://twitter.com/IfNotNowOrg/status/1222888022292750336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Another recipient of Klarman’s funding, Amy Klobuchar, has taken a strongly
pro-Israel line, vowing to support Trump’s relocation of the U.S.embassy
<https://mondoweiss.net/2020/01/amy-klobuchar-says-she-would-work-on-increasing-support-for-israel-if-elected-president/>
from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

*Battling Bernie with Hedge Fund Money & Sexism Claims*

Like Klarman, Donald Sussman is a hedge funder who has channeled his
fortune into Pacronym. He has given $1 million to the Super PAC and was
also top donor to Clinton
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/20/hedge-fund-manager-s-donald-sussman-gave-21-million-to-pro-clinton-super-pac-priorities-usa/>
in
2016.

Sussman’s Paloma Partners operates
<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/05/hedge-fund-megadonors-capitalize-on-offshore-opportunities/>
through
a series of offshore shell companies, and received tens of millions of
dollars
<https://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-got-bailout-bucks-too-2009-3> in
the 2009 federal bailout of the banking industry.

His daughter, Democratic operative Emily Tisch Sussman, declared on MSNBC
in September that “if you still support Sanders over Warren, it’s kind of
showing your sexism.”

MSNBC pundit says if you support Bernie Sanders over Elizabeth Warren it’s
“showing your sexism.” pic.twitter.com/fghFIqOF6C <https://t.co/fghFIqOF6C>

— Ibrahim (@ibrahimpols) September 27, 2019
<https://twitter.com/ibrahimpols/status/1177719744096559110?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

As Democratic elites like the Sussmans braced for a Bernie Sanders triumph
in Iowa, a mysterious piece of technology spun out by a group they
supported delayed the vote results, preventing Sanders from delivering a
victory speech. And the politician many of them supported, Pete Buttigieg,
exploited the moment to declare himself the winner. In such a strange
scenario, conspiracy theories write themselves.

*Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of books
including best-selling **“**Republican Gomorrah*
<https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Gomorrah-Inside-Movement-Shattered/dp/1568584172>
*,”* *“**Goliath*
<https://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345>
*,”* *“**The Fifty One Day War*
<https://www.amazon.com/51-Day-War-Ruin-Resistance/dp/156858511X>*” **and*
*“**The Management of Savagery*
<https://www.versobooks.com/books/2868-the-management-of-savagery>*.”** He
has also produced numerous print articles for an array of publications,
many video reports and several documentaries including **“**Killing Gaza*
<https://killinggaza.com/>*”** and **“**Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie*
<https://vimeo.com/145816483>*.”  **Blumenthal founded the Grayzone Project
in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war
and its dangerous domestic repercussions.*

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