The Tangled Web at "Spirit of America"

Founder/CEO Jim Hake has updated the FINANCIALS page at SoA with this news:

Spirit of America was granted non-profit 501(c)(3) status by the IRS on November 22, 2004. Our Federal Tax ID is 20-1687786. Before receiving our own 501c3 status we operated under the auspices of Cyber Century Forum, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Hake provides this letter from the IRS as proof of his independent status. In fact, Hake has totally revamped the FINANCIALS section, including tax returns for CCF going back to 1998 - talk about getting a response!

NOTE: Hake says the Schlumberger and Transocean stocks were an investment by Cyber Century Forum, rather than financial backing as I called it previously (I'm an Australian and I don't know how to read a US tax return - so sue me!). But with regards to operations in Iraq today, investment in the US oil industry by a supposed charity is just as questionable as financial backing by them.

At first sight, this seems to prove Hake's claim that his SoA group has no links with the US oil industry. But if that's the case, then, like the Fadhil brothers, Hake appears to have been used by people with a hidden agenda. Unlike Ali at ITM, however, he doesn't seem to have a problem with this.

The CCF tax returns show the investment in Schlumberger going back to at least 1998. Did Hake know about this investment when SoA was set up? If not, why not? When I started checking over SoA and CCF the other day, it took me only an hour to find it. Has SoA received oil money or not (Hake remains ambiguous on that)? Has Hake met with oil execs? What does he know about CCF's relationship to the oil industry?

Why is CCF investing money in US oil anyway? Just a bloody coincidence? Who ARE these people? Their website indicates they are just well-connected talking heads, flitting from one executive dinner to another. Their principal PRODUCT seems to be a book on Middle Eastern countries which - if I remember correctly - was widely lambasted as "US revisionist history for the ME" when it first came out. And if I remember correctly, this book was also strongly promoted - like Iraq The Model - by none other than arch neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz.

Looks like I have some more googling to do...

Meanwhile, this Press Release from iUpload has more details of the planned Arabic blogging tool to be released by Spirit of America. SoA will be hosting the service, so they will be able to minitor and censor all material posted on these blogs.