“Conor Gallagher Investigates….” How USAID Influenced Irish Times Aughinish Coverage

Like Manna from heaven, Tara Street;s Conor Gallagher has published yet another investigation, this time into the use of Spanish password management company Passwork, its ties to Kremlin intelligence services and the exposure of various state agencies from using their services.

As Official Ireland is still in a tailspin from the Aughinish fallout on what was planned to be an uneventful showcasing for Dublin elites for their EU Council Presidency the latest expose on the Spanish firm’s dodgy links points to a noticeable pattern in the IT.

While it is true Republic is a perennial disaster zone for military preparedness and the risk of indirect Russian aggression is a legitimate concern going back to HSE cyberattack, the IT’s coverage points in a particular Atlanticist direction.

In both instances the Aughnish expose and this week’s revelations stem from the non-profit but heavily US government subsidised Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project journalist network aka (OCCRP) which published simultaneous investigations in tandem with Gallagher.

Founded in 2007 by journalists Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu OCCRP made $13.75 million of its 2024 budget of $24 million from direct US subsidies with additional funding streams originating from UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Sweden’s Sida, the Dutch and New Zealand governments, EU bodies, Soros’ Open Society Foundation (perhaps Gallagher could feature that in his next piece on far right conspiracies) as well as the Ford Foundation for good measure.

According to the organisation’s FAQ’s it was financially burnt by the shuttering of USAID by the Trump administration, now engaged in a legal suit against the State Department over the legality of the cessation of their grant and potential abuse of executive powers.

OCCRP’s fiscal dependency on the US government and the impact it has had on the targets of its journalism has even irked some on the left with a 2024 investigation by Drop site revealing even greater structural reliance on Uncle Sam than previously imagined. Perhaps most interestingly the story revealed the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in managing OCCRP’s grant application with the organisation’s investigation rumoured to pave the way for sanction action by the US government according to insiders.

OCCRP’s funding streams further came under scrutiny during 2025 congressional hearings stateside as well as their overlap with the US security state with accusations of a wish that OCCRP was “hiding US government funding” aired in public.

Quoting from the testimony from Michael Shellenberger.

“OCCRP does not operate like a normal news organization. Its goals appear to include interfering in foreign political matters, including elections, with an eye toward causing regime change. Sullivan told NDR that his organization had “probably been responsible for five or six countries changing over from one government to another government… and getting prime ministers indicted or thrown out. As such, it appears that the CIA, USAID, and OCCRP were all involved in the impeachment of President Trump in ways similar to the regime change operations that all three organizations engage in abroad.”

Often the subject of being a front for US intelligence agencies to plant stories under the guise of journalism, Russia has designatedOCCRP an “undesirable organization” since 2022. While in India, the governing BJP accused OCCRP, the U.S. State Department and George Soros of participating in a “deep state” campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi after reporting involving the commodity trading firm the Adani Group. 

None of this proves that Conor Gallagher is taking instructions from Washington but points to a rather tired game in the Irish press going back decades. That of the strategic placement of stories by what are essentially government and intelligence intermediaries. OCCRP in this instance.

OCCRP is not formally an American state agency or overt conduit of the CIA etc, but it is scarcely an ordinary independent newsroom either.

In the Aughinish case, OCCRP itself concedes that it could not trace any identifiable batch of Irish alumina into a particular Russian weapon; what it established was an indirect supply-chain connection through Russian smelters and traders. Yet the resulting coverage rapidly became an instrument for diplomatic pressure, an Irish government investigation and demands for further EU sanctions that could render the plant unviable and place hundreds of Irish livelihoods at risk 

Russia’s war and the State’s cyber vulnerabilities are legitimate subjects of investigation, but that does not require Irish readers to suspend judgment about organisations operating only one institutional degree from the US security state. 

Decisions affecting Irish neutrality, industrial policy and the future of Aughinish should be made through transparent democratic debate involving its workers and affected communities not preconditioned by a foreign-funded reporting network whose geopolitical objectives may bear little relationship to the wishes or material interests of the Irish people.