Who Lurks Behind the "Occupy Wall Street" Demonstrations?

This really shouldn't be surprising. Once again, every time you turn over a rock....

Reuters Speculates George Soros May Have Ties To Occupy Wall Street

But beyond the few organizational structures we’ve heard about and the public figures who have come out to express their solidarity with the frustrated bunch, who is actually funding this monumental movement?

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda…

Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street.

According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros’ Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based group that acts almost like a clearing house for other donors

Disclosure documents also show Tides, which declined comment, gave Adbusters grants of $185,000 from 2001-2010, including nearly $26,000 between 2007-2009.

Also see:

Who's Behind The Wall Street Protests?

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse

According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros' Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center

Disclosure documents also show Tides, which declined comment, gave Adbusters grants

The Vancouver-based group, which publishes a magazine and runs such campaigns as "Digital Detox Week" and "Buy Nothing Day," says it wants to "change the way corporations wield power" and its goal is "to topple existing power structures."

Adbusters, whose magazine has a circulation of 120,000 and which is known for its spoofs of popular advertisements, came up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, said Kalle Lasn, 69, Adbusters co-founder.

"It came out of these brainstorming sessions we have at Adbusters," Lasn told Reuters, adding they began promoting it online on July 13. "We were inspired by what happened in Tunisia and Egypt and we had this feeling that America was ripe for a Tahrir moment."

The dots are pretty easy to connect. Soros gives millions to the Tides Center who in turns funnels money into the Adbusters - the group who started this whole idea. Not hard to figure that out.

The protests began in earnest on September 17, triggered by an Adbusters campaign featuring a provocative poster showing a ballerina dancing atop the famous bronze bull in New York's financial district as a crowd of protesters wearing gas masks approach behind her.

Dressed in anarchist black, the battle-ready mob is shrouded in a fog suggestive of tear gas or fires burning. Some are wearing gas masks, others wielding sticks. The poster's message seems to be a heady combination of sexuality, violence, excitement and adventure.

Again, this isn't surprising. And the protests have effectively removed the blame from where it belongs - notably the failed policies of the current administration and the democratic senate (not to mention the two years of a democratic supermajority) and now the narrative is centered on Wall Street.

And once again, we see Mr Soros lurking in the background.