Charitable Intelligence

A charitable act hoping to improve the situation of others without any expectation of reward is noble. However, we must distinguish between authentic charitable work and those using such things for manipulative purposes. Some United States government agencies have avoided employing force by using political or financial methods to influence domestic law and the policy of foreign nations. These methods expand a base of soft power by using charity groups to conceal deeper covert intentions. The expansion of a “humanitarian” group leads to greater funding, influence, membership, and sometimes more power under the guise of helping people. Legal clashes since last year over the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have led to significant budget cuts, moving several programs to the US State Department, and its formal closure. While some claim the entire agency was corrupt and others deem all its programs essential, neither claim is based wholly on facts.

USAID was created for charitable purposes but it quickly became a cover mechanism for the Central Intelligence Agency and other groups amid the nineteen sixties. Legitimate charity and programs were funded and run by members of USAID, but that does not justify the expanding corruption within the organization. It cannot account for the lack of accountability, illegal financial schemes, or deceptions committed to silently enforce government policy. One modern instance alleges multiple USAID contractors fraudulently charged the government one hundred thousand dollars in the course of multiple years. A related suspect, Steven Paul Edmund Sutton, pled guilty to pocketing twenty-one thousand for himself.i Yet this was the proverbial tip of the duplicity iceberg. Mahmoud Al Hafyan was charged for defrauding USAID by diverting nine million dollars in humanitarian aid to armed groups in Syria and one terrorist group in Iraq. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent’s statement noted, “Al Hafyan diverted millions of dollars” to support terrorists and “...to line his own pockets.”ii

Roderick Watson, a USAID contacting officer, and three business owners pleaded guilty for “their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over 550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.”iii USAID had dramatic credibility issues, lacked true oversight, and used charity to pursue intelligence goals. However, it will not be the last group used for such purposes, and it certainly was not the first in modern US history. USAID has become synonymous with corruption and intelligence operations under the guise of humanitarian assistance. Yet it was a government run group. One likely modeled off the earlier use of independent charity groups. The question is which groups and do they still exist?

Amidst nineteen thirty-three a committee of “American intellectuals, artists, clergy, and political leaders” formed a branch of the International Relief Association at the behest of its leader, Albert Einstein. It was created to aid refugees escaping fascist Germany, which Einstein himself did later that year. The group was rightly lauded in the press for its early humanitarian work during the nineteen thirties and forties by helping untold people escape the despotic German regime. “Another group of leaders formed the Emergency Rescue Committee when Paris fell…” and both groups eventually merged. “And so came into being the organization that grew into today’s International Rescue Committee” (IRC). The group’s current website notes “At this time, there were no refugee programs, no aid agencies to ensure the safety of refugees. IRC volunteers were among the first civilians to offer aid to Europe’s displaced peoples after Germany’s surrender”.iv Similar to USAID, the IRC was created with noble intentions and did significant good but was not immune to the unseen hand of intelligence.

Leo M. Cherne was the IRC Chairman for Multiple Decades

The first notable member of the later IRC leadership with proven connections to the Central Intelligence Agency, is businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian Leo Cherne. He built his name in government by authoring policy documents and books regarding New Deal programs and the effects of America entering WWII. His growing influence was accentuated by predicting the US would enter the war years before Pearl Harbor. After joining the faculty of Georgetown University, Leo’s undertakings further included founding the Research Institute of America publishing company. He became the International Rescue Committee’s Board Chairman during nineteen fifty-one and was granted covert security approval by the CIA the same year. Cherne eventually gave regular speeches at military, government, and business events. He used acquired business connections for the CIA’s Project QKENCHANT, a nineteen fifties program designed to use companies for cover and intelligence gathering. Cherne was simultaneously undertaking intelligence operations amid his earliest years leading the IRC. Seemingly that would establish he might influence the operations of a charity, since he was already doing the same thing with related businesses.

IRC President JohN Richardson Jr. Amidst The Late Nineteen Forties

This reasonable deduction is confirmed within some of John F. Kennedy files released earlier this year. Several intelligence gathering reports submitted over a decade by varying IRC officials from across the globe connects some in the group with the CIA. John Richardson Jr., an IRC Board member and later President was providing intelligence to government officials during the nineteen fifties. He provided a Hungarian officials comments about the “U-2” spy plane “incident”, the “status” of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and other matters of political interest. He further appraised officials regarding Hungarian politics stating “Political Situation Stabilized for Time Being/No Positive Support of Regime/Desire of Regime for International Acceptance/Suggestions for Increased Contact with Hungarian People”. However, the reformist Hungarian government of Imre Nagy that American officials supported was later defeated by the Soviets. Richardson provided his “contacts in Poland” to officials and noted important potential sources of intelligence with stars. He eventually became the president of Radio Free Europe amidst the nineteen sixties, another CIA influenced group, but remained on the IRC’s board.

William J. Van den Heuval was Among the IRC Leaders Sending CIA Multiple Intelligence Reports

William J. Van den Heuvel, a subsequent IRC president also offered intelligence gathered from its charity efforts. He sent contact reports that provided information about varying locales that range from West Berlin to Angola. Officials were being provided information on student movements aiding refugees fleeing East Germany and monitoring the effect of Soviet medical facilities on local populations. Van den Heuvel’s biography is also quite interesting. He joined William Donovan’s law firm and subsequently was the assistant to both Ambassador Donovan and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Donovan was the illustrious leader of the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence group that following multiple reorganizations became the Central Intelligence Agency.

The IRC faced public criticism in the course of the nineteen seventies, because they allegedly prior took fifteen thousand dollars from the CIA via the Norman Foundation. A supreme irony was the claim followed President Ford’s appointment of Leo Cherne to a “committee that will investigate the possible abuses of authority by the Central Intelligence Agency.” Cherne told the media that no IRC official “had the slightest knowledge that any of those were C.I.A. funds”. He went on to state the committee “never sought” Agency funding and “would not have ‘welcomed’ them if they had been offered overtly”. Indeed, Leo seemed to prefer only covert relationships with intelligence services.v A day later, the Norman Foundation leader who prior stated he received official funds made a public retraction in the press.

At the close of nineteen seventy-nine the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and gained control over significant areas of land. That military takeover created a wave of dissidents and exiles seeking to flee elsewhere. The Carter administration in America responded by increasing aid to Afghan insurgents. When related US government policy began to affect the IRC’s goals, Cherne’s sought to manipulate it with his own intelligence connections. A nineteen eighty memo from Leo Cherne to CIA Director William Casey bemoans rule changes by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. The reasoning given by Cherne was strictly based on supposed humanitarian principles such as preventing undue hardship for refugees. Yet if he wanted to honestly change government policy would Leo not have approached the officials running it? Instead, he used the leader of the CIA to influence others privately and decry such policy.

CIA Director Casey states in a followup memo “...I have been appraised by our mutual friend Leo Cherne...Leo is Chairman of the International Rescue Committee...the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been turning back refugees who are deemed to have left...to better themselves economically rather than escape political oppression. This is too fine a line and, when applied to turning back refugees back to Afghanistan and Cambodia, it becomes quite outrageous.”vi Perhaps more outrageous, is the fact the CIA Director was trying to alter government policy for his friend’s charity. This communication illustrates the IRC’s Chairman using the Central Intelligence Agency in efforts to covertly further his group’s purposes. It appears Leo Cherne’s past denials are demolished by his own repeated actions and those IRC’s members who frequently reported to intelligence employees.

While the International Rescue Committee began with truly admirable goals, time has made some of its former programs resemble USAID. The IRC settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit with the US government during two-thousand and twenty-one for accusations of “Engaging in Collusive Behavior and Misconduct on Programs Funded by the United States Agency for International Development”.vii According to the settled lawsuit, by two-thousand and twelve some in the IRC were allegedly engaged in the same corrupt practices that shut down USAID. Make of that what you will. However, the eroded trust in some modern charities is well deserved based upon groups serving as tools of intelligence community. The IRC was noted by Forbes to be the fortieth largest charity within the United States with an estimated total revenue of more than a billion dollars amid twenty twenty-four. It’s highest compensated officer was paid over a million dollars annually and it held net assets of two hundred and eighty-one million dollars.viii When being charitable, attempt to learn exactly who you are providing resources to based on available evidence and ignore the emotional manipulation.
Sincerely,
C.A.A. Savastano

References:
i. United States Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, May 19, 2025, Former Contractor of USAID-Funded Program Extradited to the United States, Convicted and Sentenced for Conspiracy to Obtain Grant Money Through Fraud, United States Department of Justice, justice.gov
ii. US Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, November 19, 2024, Syrian National Charged with Diverting $9 Million in U.S.-funded Humanitarian Assistance to a Terrorist Organization Affiliated with Al-Qaida, US Department of Justice, justice.gov
iii. US Office of Public Affairs, June 12, 2025, USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty to Decade Long Bribery Scheme Involving Over $550 Million in Contracts; Two Companies Admit Criminal Liability for Bribery Scheme and Securities Fraud, US Department of Justice, justice.gov
iv. Rescue Timeline 1933, March 14, 2015, Albert Einstein and the birth of the International Rescue Committee, The International Rescue Committee, rescue.org
v. John M. Crewdson, February 20, 1976, Group Led by C.I.A. Board Nominee Reportedly Got $15,000 From Agency, New York Times, newyorktimes.com
vi. William J. Casey, May 13, 1981, Letter to the Honorable William French Smith, Central Intelligence Agency, cia.gov
vii. US Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, March 19, 2021, The International Rescue (“IRC”) Agrees to Pay $6.9 Million To Settle Allegations That Ut Performed Procurement Fraud by Engaging in Collusive Behavior and Misconduct on Programs Funded by the United States Agency for International Development, US DOJ, justice.gov
viii. The Largest 100 U.S. Charities, 2024, The International Rescue Committee, Forbes, forbes.com

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