Open Letter to the Tor Project: Where Does Your Money Come From and Why Do You Hide It From the Public?

We are about to send  just sent the following letter to the Tor Project in order to follow through on a suggestion forwarded to us by Jacob Applebaum.

From our rather cursory look into the Tor Project and its funding it appears that – in 2011 at least – the organizers of the Tor Project and their US Government “sponsors” attempted to hide the true sources of its funding from the public by utilizing the classic US Government cloak-and-dagger method of using “cutout” companies and NGOs to “pass-through” money from the US Defense Department and the US State Department to Tor – to the tune of over $730,000.00 – a huge chunk of their total funding.

The Tor Project’s own “amended” financial document for 2011 which reveals these current relationships between Tor and the highest levels of the US Government, presented to Tor by their accountants in July 2012 – appears to have been required by law in order for Tor to continue to qualify for “not-for-profit” status or some such.  The accountants were apparently obliged to reveal these “hidden” Tor funders in order to stay above the law.

Here is the text of the letter we sent at Jacob Appelbaum’s request to the tor-assistants [at] torproject.org.  We will let you know as soon as we receive an answer from them. – FoWL – Chicago

3 January, 2013

Hello, “Tor-assistants”:

Jacob Appelbaum suggested we write to you to ask you some questions that have arisen over the funding sources for the Tor Project.

1) We would like to know what the relationship of the Tor Project to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. State Department is today, in 2013.  In 2011, you received over $800,000.00 in funding
from U.S. government agencies: $503,706.00 from the U.S. Department of Defense via the cutout NGO “SRI International”; $227,118.00 from the U.S. State Department via the cutout company “Internews Network” and $143,062.00 from the National Science Foundation via the cutout entity known as Drexel University: a total of $873,886.00 for the year ended December 31, 2011.  This makes the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. State Department your two biggest financial sponsors.

2) Why is this information about the sources of your current funding not revealed to people who visit your website on the “Tor: Sponsors” page?  There, it is very misleadingly stated that your funding from the US Defense Department (“DARPA”) ENDED in 2006, and that the sponsorship of Tor by the only other overt US Military entity, the US Naval Research Laboratory ended in 2010.  It also very misleadingly
hides the true source of your current funding behind the very small fig leaf of the “Broadcasting Board of Governors” – a CIA/State Department operation that runs such notorious CIA-run US propaganda operations as the Voice of America, Radio Liberty and Radio Marti.

3) Most damningly, why does Tor Project appear to hide its U.S. Defense Department “sponsor” behind the utterly false flag of “An Anonymous North American NGO” on the “Tor: Sponsors” page?  Who
could that be, but “SRI International” – identified in your own amended financial documents as a “pass through” for the US DoD – since they appear to be the only other organization in 2011 that donated over
$500,000 to your operation?

[Source: “THE TOR PROJECT, INC. AND AFFILIATE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND REPORTS REQUIRED FOR AUDITS IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOVERNMENT AUDITING STANDARDS AND OMB CIRCULAR A-133 DECEMBER 31, 2011 AND 2010”, produced by Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, Certfied Public Accountants and Consultants, July 19, 2012 available at https://www.torproject.org/about/findoc/2011-TorProject-Amended-Final-Report.pdf%5D

We eagerly await your responses to these questions.

Friends of WikiLeaks – Chicago