Jeffrey Pandin

Jeffrey Pandin was - in the 1980s - a conservative activist working for anti-soviet and pro Apartheid organisations. In February 1986 he was reported as being 24,and in March 1987, 25, so he was born in either 1961 or 1962.

Anti-soviet protest 1985

In 1985 Pandin was listed as a press contact for the Save The Oppressed People committee, which

today claimed credit for focusing national and world attention on the "illegal and immoral kidnapping of Ukrainian seaman Medvid by the Soviets aboard the Marshal Koniev."..."Now that the Congress and the White House have begun to feel the national outrage over the Medvid incident, we feel that this Soviet sailor will, at the very least, be given the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States," said Finzer.

"I applaud the courageous and decisive efforts of Sen. Helms, R-N.C., and the Agriculture Committee in issuing a subpoena to get Medvid off the ship. And I hope they will press the U.S. Customs Department to lock up the Marshal Koniev until the committee gets a chance to ask Medvid directly if he wants asylum in America." For almost a week, the Washington-based STOP committee has been doing everything it could think of to bring attention to the Medvid case. It organized a flotilla of more than fifty boats and threatened to blockade the harbor to prevent the Soviet freighter from departing. It mobilized the various groups of new Americans from Vietnam and Central America who felt great sympathy to seaman Medvid. And, most important, it maintained a round-the-clock vigil aboard its ship, the Freedom Warrior, to make sure that the Soviets could not secretly transfer Medvid to another of the seven Soviet grain ships in the harbor. By using a bull horn and speaking through a translator in both Russian and Ukrainian, Finzer was able to communicate with crew members on the Koniev who told him that seaman Medvid was heavily drugged and in chains below deck... The STOP committee is currently conducting Soviet disinvestment campaigns on more than 20 college campuses in more than a dozen states. CONTACT -- Bonner Cohen, 800-424-9700 or 202-547-0200, or Jeffrey Pandin, 504-525-6500 Ext. 2811, both of STOP.

Angola protest 1986

According to UPI Pandin was amongst four protestors who handcuffed themselves to the offices of Gray and company the PR firm representing the government of Angola in February 1986:

Four members of the Young Conservative Foundation Tuesday handcuffed themselves to a staircase in a Georgetown public relations firm that represents the Marxist government of Angola. Police charged the four with unlawful entry, and a Soviet diplomat later showed up at the group's office, apparently by coincidence, and discussed the incident with its leader.

Officers used police handcuff keys to free Kile McCreary, 21; Jeffrey Pandin, 24; Warren Simms, 19; and John Scanlon, 21; all of Washington. The incident began at 9:30 a.m. and lasted about 20 minutes. Lee Bellinger, the president of the Washington-based foundation, said the demonstrators were upset that the firm, Gray and Co., represents the interests of Marxist Angola.

The Washington Post added:

Those young conservatives are learning what civil obedience is all about. Last week members of the Young Conservative Alliance showed up at the highly visible Gray & Co. Powerhouse Offices to protest the Georgetown public relations firm representing the Marxist Angola government. Outmaneuvered last Thursday, four of the young conservatives were back again yesterday, handcuffed themselves to a staircase in the lobby of Gray's offices and were arrested by police.

The four neatly dressed conservatives -- Kile McCreary, 21; Jeffrey Pandin, 24; Warren Simms, 19; and John Scanlon, 21 -- were charged with unlawful entry and taken off to spend the day in jail. A day in jail could turn them into real radicals. Gray Vice President Frank Mankiewicz said the four protesters were invited to meet with Robert Gray or Adm. Daniel J. Murphy, who is in charge of Gray's international division. "They didn't want to talk," he said. "They wanted a media event."

Lee Bellinger, president of the alliance, who describes his group as "contras in the conservative movement," said Gray has seen not the last of them. "They represent the communist regime of Angola and are basically promoting that regime's message. We will continue our guerrilla warfare against the firm. We want to muddy the water for them, make things hard for them."

In Austalia for the IFF

In 1987 Pandin organised a series of protest in Australia to coincide with a visit there by Oliver Tambo of the ANC:

Mr Tambo, whose ANC is banned in South Africa, rejected claims made in Sydney yesterday by the International Freedom Foundation that the ANC was a terrorist organisation. The foundation's Australian executive director, Mr Brendan Davis, said in a statement Mr Tambo was a violent terrorist with the blood of many women and children on his hands.

A crowd protested yesterday outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney where Mr Tambo held a news conference. Some had tyres around their necks in symbolic protest at the alleged ANC practice of "necklacing" - when petrol-soaked tyres are placed around a victim's neck and ignited.

The Telegraph reported the IFF protest and noted that International Freedom Foundation was a group 'which promotes democracy through non-violence, said it would oppose the ANC until it renounced violence.'

The IFF then published full page newspaper ads denouncing the ANC:

He accused the US of sending people to Australia to organise the tyre-necklace protests against him, and the South African Government of financing newspaper advertisements critical of his mission.

One full-page newspaper advertisement last week carried a photograph of the burning body of a black South African, and said people in sympathy with the ANC were responsible for burning tyre killings of those working with the apartheid regime.

In denying that the South African Government was financing the ads the it was reported that the IFF 'said yesterday that funding came from private donors in the US.' The disavowal of South African connection was a lie.

Indicating the top-down nature of their work the Sydney Morning Herald reported that 'The largest demonstration against Mr Tambo attracted no more than 50 people. "I think to get even 50 people out demonstrating on a week night is a good indication of extensive opposition to the ANC," he said.

The Herald also provided some background on the IFF:

Mr Pandin said more than 100 US business groups had donated over $1 million to the IFF since it began operations less than six months ago. The group funds "projects" around the world, including assistance to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. "We hope to open an office in Australia within a year and will be approaching business people here who we know are predisposed to us and ask for their support," he said. The IFF has offices in Johannesburg, London, Tel Aviv and Washington...

Mr Pandin said the IFF was concerned with political and economic freedom. "We believe in democracy and free enterprise," he said. He refused to identify the US businesses funding the group, but said that to his knowledge, "no US company which has pulled out of South Africa is currently a sponsor of the IFF". He said the IFF did not receive funds from the US Government but had "their moral support for some projects".

Mr Pandin will attend an IFF conference in South Africa next year, but denied any links with the Pretoria regime. He said the IFF was anti-apartheid but objected to the ANC's alleged acts of violence. Instead, the group supported "peaceful negotiations" - not with the ANC but with the popular black leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He denied that Chief Buthelezi was a Pretoria puppet.

Note, again, the lie that the Pretoria regime was not behind the group.

Affilaitions

• STOP (Save The Oppressed People) an anti-Soviet grouping. In 1985 he was listed as a press contact.
• Young Conservative Foundation (also called the Young Conservative Alliance) 1986
• International Freedom Foundation (South African government front group) 1987-1990 (at least)

Resources

• Namebase Jeffrey Pandin
• Front for Apartheid Washington-based think tank said to be part of ruse to prolong power This article was reported by Dele Olojede in South Africa and Timothy M. Phelps in Washington, and was written by Olojede. NEWSDAY Sunday July 16, 1995.
• http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-30/business/fi-2317_1_gulf-oil?pg=2