Billionaire donates anti-Bush money

2003-08-09 10:23

Washington - International financier and philanthropist George Soros, an aggressive critic of the Bush administration, is donating US$10m to muster Democratic voters in 17 key states, media reports said on Friday.

In a statement on Friday, Soros said he had launched a group, Americans Coming Together, or ACT, to hinder President George Bush's re-election. The group aims to raise $75m by the November elections in 2004, Scripps Howard News Service reported.

Soros, who accumulated his $7bn fortune largely through foreign currency speculation, now donates about $50m to spreading democracy around the world, through the Open Society Institute and other foundations. Some of his critics say he contributed to the 1997 Asian economic crisis through his ruthless speculation.

Soros charged that Bush is "leading us in the wrong direction".

"The Bush doctrine is both false and dangerous. The rest of the world is having an allergic reaction to it, as we have seen in Iraq. We need to change direction," he was quoted as saying. - Sapa-DPA

- SAPA