U.S. Congressmen Targeting George Soros’s Subversion in Macedonia

Over the past month, legislators led by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, have acted to determine the extent of British agent George Soros’s subversion of the republic of Macedonia, abetted by U.S. Ambassador and Obama appointee Jess Baily.

Both Lee and Smith wrote letters to Baily, demanding he explain the embassy’s role in intervening in Macedonia’s internal party politics, and in “shaping the media environment and civil society … favoring groups of one political persuasion over another,” in the Dec. 11, 2016 elections. Lee’s Jan. 17 letter specifically asked whether “the U.S. Mission to Macedonia selected the Open Society Foundation”—founded by George Soros—”as the major implementer of USAID projects in Macedonia?” The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is part of the State Department.

A Jan. 17 letter by Rep. Smith and several other House Republicans had similar wording. “We need to have a detailed oversight into what the [obama] administration has been doing over the past eight years,” Smith said, “because we have been taking sides politically, and there have been other similar incidents…it is against the law and is unheard of.”

On Feb. 3, the Heritage Foundation news agency, the Daily Signal reported that Congressmen are considering holding hearings and Representative Smith has launched an investigation into Soros’s Macedonian operation. Anti-Soros organizers inside Macedonia, report that since 2012, USAID has been allocating most of its assistance to the Open Society Institute as well as to non-governmental organizations controlled by Soros. Conservative Macedonian political commentator Cvetin Chilimanov told the Daily Signal that Baily was actively seeking to form a “red-green” coalition between the former communist Social Democratic Union (SDSM) and two ethnic Albanian parties, to replace the VMRO-DPMNE coalition which won the Dec. 11 elections.

Chilimanov is a co-founder of the “Stop Operation Soros” citizens’ group. According to the Asian Tribune Sunday, Senator Lee’s staff met recently with Macedonian lawmakers, who handed them a white paper produced by the group which charges that USAID has been financing hard-left causes in the country, including violent riots in the streets which target the President, police and government institutions. To date, Ambassador Baily hasn’t responded to the Senate or House letters, but in response to Representative Smith’s inquiries, acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner stated in late January, that as a friend of Macedonia, “the U.S. urges all parties to respect the rule of law, democratic processes and international commitments. We want to see a strong Macedonia, on its way to becoming a member of the Euro-Atlantic family.”