Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative
Summary
The Integrity Initiative now accounts for most of the budget of a Scottish-registered charity named the Institute for Statecraft founded by Daniel Lafayeedney and Chris Donnelly in 2006. Most of the overt funding for this programme – about £2.6 million / year – comes from the Conflict Security and Stability Fund’s Russian Language Programme, now merged with a secret Counter Disinformation and Media Campaign. Office space in central London and most of the staff salaries, appear to be provided as a covert benefit in kind.
A close examination of past and present posts held by individuals associated with the Integrity Initiative indicates that specialists in military intelligence and other senior military personnel with responsibility for StratCom (strategic communication) operations are closely involved in the programme.
The activities of the Integrity Initiative include:
setting up covert networks ‘clusters’ of journalists, academics and military/foreign service StratCom practitioners in each country including the UK: – The programme has begun to create a critical mass of individuals from across society (think tanks, academia, politics, the media, government and the military) whose work is proving to be mutually reinforcing.
covert manipulation of the public sphere, including campaigns to smear and suppress dissenters and block their appointment to public office. The silencing of pro-Kremlin voices on Serbian TV is listed as an achievement.
overt attacks on British politicians, academics and other critics of UK government policies, most notably on the Leader of the Opposition and his staff.
in the Baltic states and Ukraine, working closely with organizations and governments that foment hatred of ethnic Russian minorities and encourage Holocaust revisionism.
promotion of a hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Balkans.
These activities:
are not the charitable purposes set out in the Institute of Statecraft’s constitution, and are not charitable purposes in general.
violate the accepted principle that government funding may not be used for partisan political purposes.
indicate that the Government has misled the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about the scope of the Russian Language Programme of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund.
indicate that military units specialized for information warfare are now participating in covert manipulation of political discourse at home, subverting parliamentary government.
have contributed to narrowing the range of public discourse so as to marginalize reality-based evaluation of policy options for relations with Russia and evidence-based assessment of events in which Russian involvement is alleged.
There are serious concerns about the transparency of the Institute for Statecraft (formerly the Institute of Statecraft and Governance):
Its registered corporate address is a derelict building in rural Scotland which is being demolished
In a High Court judgement in 2006 against Lafayeedney, the judge commented adversely on his probity and his business methods.
The filed accounts show unexplained ‘defects’ for the year ending 23 November 2010. After the Board had approved accounts showing income of £158,470, Lafayeedney filed accounts for a dormant company. The accounts were amended more than a year later by Donnelly who filed the accounts that the Board had approved.
Donnelly and Lafayeedney have on at least two occasions set up Scottish Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) with names that could easily be confused with existing charities or foundations. Thus in 2009 they set up ISG Corporate LLP at a time when the acronym ISG was used for the Institute of Statecraft and Governance by a charity with which it was in partnership, and in 2010 they set up Council on Foreign Relations as an LLP, with a name that is identical to that of a respected US foreign policy think tank.
Scottish Limited Partnerships and LLPs are notorious as a vehicle for non-transparent financial transfers.
(Quelle: Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media mit allen Details)