A wireless provider with ties to the secret dark money group the Democracy Alliance is pushing back against the Obama administration’s surveillance of customers. CREDO Mobile cofounder Michael Kieschnick said on Thursday he was "deeply disturbed" by the administration’s invasion of individual’s civil liberties.
"As the CEO of a mobile phone company, I'm deeply disturbed by the Obama administration's growing record of executive power grabs at the expense of constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties," Kieschnick said in a statement to CNN Money.
Kieschnick is a member of the invite-only progressive Democracy Alliance. The exclusive group since 2005 has funneled more than $500 million into liberal organizations such as the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action and the Center for American Progress, the influential liberal think tank.
Kieschnick has contributed millions to pro-Obama special interest groups through CREDO Mobile’s liberal activism network, CREDO Action, including the League of Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood.
CREDO has contributed $73 million to progressive causes since its inception in 1985. The nonprofit is funded through Working Assets Funding Service, which generates revenue from a 1 percent donation from all CREDO Mobile service charges.
The telecommunications CEO now plans to use his group as a vehicle to protest the administration’s wiretapping surveillance activities. CREDO Action recently launched a public action campaign against Obama asking the American people to reject the president’s spying by signing a petition on their website. The petition reads:
"President Obama: We call upon you and demand that, as a constitutional scholar who ran on a platform of transparency in government, you justify your indiscriminate spying on Americans."
The Democracy Alliance held their annual spring conference in Laguna Beach in April where the group decided on the portfolio of alliance-endorsed groups.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Obama’s advocacy organization Organizing for Action (OFA) received recommended organization status and would be a priority for Democracy Alliance member donations during the 2013 cycle. According to the first quarter filing, OFA has received $50,000 donations from Democracy Alliance members S. Donald Sussman and Wayne Jordan.