For three years, a woman with a background in U.S. State Department cultural diplomacy and ties to intelligence-linked organizations quietly managed the membership database of Britain’s largest pro-Palestine organization.
Her name is Deborah Fiorin. Hired by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in early 2018 as its Membership and Data Officer, Fiorin held unprecedented access to the personal information of thousands of activists across the United Kingdom. Yet her prior work history, which includes a stint at a State Department propaganda arm and brief postings at firms with deep intelligence connections, raises serious questions about vetting, oversight, and the very integrity of the campaign’s leadership.
This investigation examines who Fiorin really is, how she came to hold such a sensitive post, and what her story reveals about the governance of PSC.
Ben Soffa, national secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), has developed software to monitor and organize the group’s members. He owns a small company called Organic Campaigns and describes himself on LinkedIn as a “developer of online campaigning tools.” As national secretary, Soffa has access to PSC’s membership data and likely worked closely with whoever oversaw the database.
As revealed in my previous article, Soffa admitted to having “limited” contact with Assaf Kaplan, the former Israeli military intelligence officer who was controversially hired by the Labour Party as head of digital operations. It remains unclear whether Soffa shared PSC member data with his Labour colleague, but the question demands scrutiny.
A more pressing concern, however, is how PSC member data may have been used.
PSC claims to take data protection seriously. According to its official privacy policy, the organization collaborates with IT contractors, website managers, and database administrators to ensure that security features are regularly updated and that personal data is handled responsibly.
The policy states that outdated or irrelevant information should be deleted and that data should be retained only as long as necessary. If an individual requests to sever ties with the organization, their record should be marked as inactive, accompanied by a note explaining why they should no longer be contacted, such as the cancellation of their membership. The full policy is available here.
However, this investigation raises serious questions about whether PSC directors, including National Director Ben Jamal, have been willing or able to enforce the group’s data protection policy.
Concerns began with PSC’s hiring of a new staff member in January 2018, a year into Ben Jamal’s tenure as national director. Although he had previously served as a PSC director from January 2014 to July 2016, this was his first full year in the lead role. The new “Membership and Data Officer,” Deborah Fiorin, remained in post for just over three years, departing in January 2021.
Meet Deborah Fiorin
A 2016 biographical note published before she joined PSC states she was “born in Italy, educated in the U.S., France, Italy and Britain.” It notes that she holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in international relations and one in philosophy, as well as an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.
On LinkedIn, she claims native or bilingual fluency in English and Italian, as well as full professional proficiency in French, and elementary proficiency in German.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Deborah Fiorin earned an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London, in 2015.
She previously studied international politics and economics at Sciences Po in Paris through the Erasmus program, and holds two bachelor’s degrees: one in philosophy from Birkbeck, University of London, and another in international relations and human rights from the University of Padua.
State Department official
After completing her master’s at SOAS in the summer of 2015, Fiorin appears to have a gap in her CV. Her next listed role doesn’t begin until March 2016. What did she do in the interim? Her LinkedIn profile offers no clues. However, a biographical note from March 2016 states that “she has worked for… the U.S. Department of Cultural Affairs in New York City.” This position is not referenced anywhere on her LinkedIn profile. But what is the U.S. Department of Cultural Affairs?
There is no “Department of Cultural Affairs” under the U.S. State Department. However, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, based in New York, performs a similar function. It promotes “mutual understanding” between the United States and other nations and has long sponsored cultural exchange programs advancing U.S. foreign policy interests, including the Fulbright Program and the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), which marked its 70th anniversary in 2010.
As it happens, the bureau has deep roots in U.S. propaganda operations, tracing its origins to the Office of War Information during World War II. Its legacy also includes links to CIA-backed initiatives, such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the U.S. Information Agency, which oversaw Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
According to the Foreign Service Journal, a publication offering an “insider perspective” for U.S. foreign service officials, the bureau sits within a tradition of CIA-sponsored covert action and soft power projection:
While Secretary of State George Marshall was telling Congress there would be no more government funding of exhibitions of modern art, the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had already embraced the idea. American avant-garde art demonstrated America’s creativity, cultural sophistication, and, especially, intellectual freedom, the CIA believed. And it would be hard for Soviet modernism, called socialist realism, to compete, given the rigidity of communist ideology. The CIA began covertly funding an initiative centered on a nongovernmental organization called the Congress for Cultural Freedom to promote the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, and others. The CIA operation grew, establishing offices in 35 countries and subsidizing international tours by American jazz artists, symphony orchestras, and more until its exposure in 1967.
Meanwhile, in 1953, the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) was created to “tell America’s story to the world.” By engaging with the world through international information, broadcasting, culture, and exchange programs, USIA made cultural diplomacy an essential element of American foreign policy. Until its 1999 absorption into the State Department, USIA’s “Arts America” program was instrumental in bringing unique American achievements in music, painting, literature, and architecture, as well as industrial arts, to the rest of the world.
And its successor, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, has continued the tradition.”
Fiorin, in other words, worked within a U.S. propaganda outfit with documented links to the CIA. This may shed light on a curious line in the March 2016 biographical note, which claims she “has written extensively on Libya, its politics and the 2011 revolution.”
Yet a search for “Deborah Fiorin” and “Libya” yields only that biography—no articles, essays or publications. Where did she “write” extensively on Libya? Was this work conducted during her tenure with a CIA-linked organization, possibly under a nondisclosure agreement? Or does it refer to student essays that were never published? Either way, the claim appears questionable and raises further concerns about how she was vetted by the PSC.
Fair Observer?
What is Fair Observer, the outlet where Fiorin published an article in March 2016, the same month she began her next job? Among its listed “partners” is Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, a group with documented ties to the Zionist-funded Henry Jackson Society. The organization itself is backed by a range of establishment funders, including the U.S. government, NATO, and the International Rescue Committee, an organization originally set up as a CIA front in 1942.
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Author: stuartbramhall
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