New Lies From New AAI ‘Directors’

Atheist Alliance International (AAI) has published what they have called a ‘Disclosure Document’ to their current membership. One of those current member groups has shared that document with me, and it is absolutely shocking. A full copy of the ‘AAI Disclosure Document’ is available at the bottom of this page. There are three categories of new information in the document, which are:

1. staggering admissions of wrongdoing and incompetence over many years, which the current AAI Board has been repeatedly lying about but now openly admits
2. overt gaps where the current AAI Board makes heroic efforts to avoid dealing in any way with some of the most serious wrongdoing that they have been responsible for
3. brand new lies, where the current Board has offered more demonstrable and deliberately false statements in an effort to cover up their very serious wrongdoing

There is so much mendacity in this document that three separate articles have been required to deal with these three separate categories of dishonesty. One previous article has described the incredible admissions of wrongdoing and corruption that have already been accepted within the document. Another previous article has described the very important questions that the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ studiously avoids answering. This article summarises some of the new lies in the document, which seek to cover up serious wrongdoing.

Context For The New Mendacity

Since a small cabal of dishonest people unlawfully took control of AAI from the valid members, a lot of generosity has been offered by many people to the new AAI Directors, who have joined the Board quite recently. Several atheist activists have assumed the best possible intentions on the part of newcomers to the AAI Board, by accepting that they took their so-called Director positions entirely in good faith. It would not be fair to blame those who have recently joined for the actions of their predecessors. However, once newcomers are fully informed about the wrongdoing of their colleagues and they associate their names with new lies intended to cover up that previous wrongdoing, then they become complicit. These newcomers include:

• Stella Thomas
• Brian Kernick
• Steve Polgar
• Kristina Hallmeier

None of the people currently claiming to be Directors on the Board of AAI can today claim to be ignorant of the very serious wrongdoing on that Board. All of those people have issued the recently-published AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ in their name, which contains a series of deliberate and intentional lies. This includes damaging lies about the same longstanding and dedicated atheist activists, who always assumed the best of intentions on the part of AAI newcomers. This is utterly disgraceful, and all of the new self-styled Directors on the purported Board of AAI are now every bit as culpable as those responsible for the original wrongdoing. By publishing deliberate and calculated lies that seek to damage the same atheist activists who extended good will to the AAI newcomers, those people listed above have behaved in an utterly appalling manner.

Lies About Affiliate Numbers

The AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ seeks to justify the anti-democratic Bylaws that were unlawfully imposed, by referring to a collapse in affiliate member numbers. Even if the claimed collapse were true, the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ does not explain why a decline in member numbers would justify cancelling all financial reporting and cancelling all democratic accountability. However, the claimed collapse in affiliate members is pure fiction. When presenting the graph below in their ‘Disclosure Document’, AAI are just lying about affiliate member numbers.

The AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ claims that the number of members groups reported at the November 2016 AGM was 28. That’s just not true. The actual number was 38 affiliate members. A full copy of the presentation given to that AGM is provided at the bottom of this page. It clearly states that at the time of writing, there were 17 groups that had already paid their renewal fees, and 21 groups that remained members but had not yet paid renewal fees.

The graph illustrated above claims that the number of members in January 2017 was less than 30. That’s also a lie. Available at the bottom of this page is a copy of the AAI Membership Report from January 2017, which was voted upon and accepted by the elected AAI Board during that month. This report describes:

• 36 active affiliate members
• 18 active associate members
• 409 active individual members

The mechanism described in the Bylaws for an affiliate group to be removed from the AAI membership list; is first for a subscription fee to be determined by the Board; then for that fee to be invoiced to the affiliate group; this invoice must then go unpaid for 60 days; and then the Board must vote for the removal of the affiliate group. If the Board does not decide what the renewal fees should be and issue commensurate invoices, then the affiliate groups cannot be expected to pay their membership fees. Since the failed 2017 AAI Board did not decide on all renewal fees or issue a comprehensive set of invoices, few member groups could conceivably have been removed during 2017*.

Notwithstanding this, the graph above claims that by end 2017 the number of members groups was 16. That’s another knowing and deliberate lie. The true numbers included circa 36 affiliate member groups and 18 associate member groups, consistent with the contemporaneous membership report provided at the bottom of this page. As the documentary evidence conclusively demonstrates, AAI are just making numbers up out of thin air. The numbers represented by this graph are just pure lies.

Lies About Atheist Activists

Whether through malice or incompetence, the failed 2017 Board of AAI began deeming memberships lapsed and expired if an affiliate group had not paid a membership fee for 12 months. This was wrong for two reasons:

1. It was entirely normal and banal within AAI for atheist groups in regions like Afghanistan to not pay subscriptions (for obvious reasons). Almost always, the Board would then vote to waive the fee. Such groups in geographies that are very difficult for atheists, remained members in good standing even though they had not paid any subscription fees.
2. The failed 2017 AAI Board did not set any subscription fees or issue any invoices to members. The membership of affiliate groups that had not received an invoice for fees, was not lapsed or expired. This is crystal clear in the Bylaws. Such affiliate groups remained members in good standing.

Based on the very wrong approach of deeming memberships to be lapsed and expired when they had not paid a fee in 12 months, the failed 2017 Board incorrectly reported a catastrophic loss of member numbers to Michael Nugent at Atheist Ireland. Michael Nugent initially took the failed 2017 Board at their word when they reported that only 6 members remained, unaware of how wrong this number was, and how inconsistent with the Bylaws it was. In one subsequent email, he repeated this information back to the then President of AAI. Consequently, within the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’, the following quote is attributed to Michael Nugent, as the Chair of Atheist Ireland:

“AAI, as an international Alliance, is in crisis, with a frankly catastrophic loss of members that we were not aware of until our last Skype call … we are not blaming the current Board members for this crisis. We recognise that you have been left with this legacy, and that you are trying to address the issues.”

Quote attributed to Michael Nugent as Chair of Atheist Ireland.

Because Michael Nugent was repeating in good faith what had been reported to him, this quote is really a measure of how catastrophically wrong the management of the membership had been by the failed 2017 AAI Board. It indicated the shock and surprise created by such an outlier report, with no prior warning.

The current Illegitimate Board of AAI know this. They know that Michael Nugent was not in this case expressing his own judgement based on an objective analysis of the actual facts. They know that once Michael Nugent learned of the very wrong manner in which the failed 2017 Board were deeming memberships to be lapsed and expired, he expressed precisely the opposite view to this. They know that in this case Michael Nugent was simply repeating in good faith the conclusion had been presented to him on a Skype call, while unaware that those arriving at the conclusion were entirely wrong. Notwithstanding this, AAI went on to dishonestly present this quote throughout their ‘Disclosure Document’, in a manner designed to give readers the impression that Michael Nugent had independently analysed the situation and come to the same conclusion as the Illegitimate Board of AAI. For example, later in the document the following line appears:

“By 2017, in Michael Nugent’s words, the organization was in crisis …”

Dishonest quote from the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’

This is deliberately dishonest. It is intended to deceive the AAI membership into believing that there has been independent verification of the false membership figures presented by the Illegitimate AAI Board. In fact, every independent analysis of the facts has demonstrated that the Illegitimate Board have consistently lied about the membership numbers. The entirely mendacious way in which this document treats dedicated atheist activists, does not end there. The broader Atheist Ireland organisation includes many volunteers who diligently work through all of the governance requirements that let them lobby at the United Nations and other international bodies. Notwithstanding this, the AAI “Disclosure Document’ includes the following blatant lie:

“We note that few atheist organizations publish their annual accounts. For example, Atheist Ireland does not …”

Dishonest quote from the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’

In fact, Atheist Ireland publishes detailed financial accounts to their members every single year and always has. In stark contrast, those on the current Illegitimate Board of AAI:

• failed to keep financial records at all for many years
• failed to publish financial accounts to their members, even when this was explicitly required under the Bylaws
• changed the Bylaws to have the requirement to publish financial accounts removed
• lost their nonprofit status as a result of their financial delinquency
• still to this day have not published AAI financial accounts to Atheist Ireland, for several years in which Atheist Ireland was an affiliate member group

That a group with such an utterly appalling record of financial mismanagement would publish a document falsely alleging that a longstanding atheist organisation lacks financial transparency, is absolutely disgraceful. Anyone who has had any connection whatsoever to this utterly dishonest AAI ‘Disclosure Document’, should hang their heads in shame.

Lies About Reinstatements

The recently published AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ states the following deliberate and calculated lie:

“The board has offered to reinstate the memberships of six of the eight organizations that were excluded from the 2018 AGM …”

Dishonest quote from the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’

That is absolutely not true and it has been explained to the Illegitimate AAI Board many times over many years that it is entirely false. For example, on 5th May 2021 Fotis Frangopoulos sent correspondence to all members of AAI, which contained a similar lie. A full copy of that correspondence is available at the bottom of this page.

The truth is that before control of AAI was unlawfully transferred from the members to a small number of dishonest individuals on the Board, those longstanding members had been co-equal affiliates of a democratic alliance. They had sought reinstatement to this status many times. Instead, the offer from the Illegitimate AAI Board has been not “reinstatement” but rather:

• an invite to join a different organisation with radically different anti-democratic bylaws
• full control of this organisation now having been transferred from the membership to the Board
• joining this new organisation, not as a co-equal member in democratic control of an alliance, but as a group that is subservient to the Board
• acceptance of the people remaining on the Board who unlawfully hijacked AAI and lied about it for years

For example, to this day the new anti-democratic Bylaw 59 states the following about motions passed by the members of AAI:

“The Board shall take motions so passed into consideration but may use its discretion as to whether and how to act upon them.”

Anti-democratic Bylaw 59

The affiliate groups that were unlawfully disenfranchised by dishonest individuals on the AAI Board, were previously co-equal members of a democratic alliance that appointed Directors to carry out the wishes of the members. Inviting them to join a different organisation with radically different Bylaws, where their democratic wishes may be cast aside by the same dishonest individuals who disenfranchised them, is not “reinstatement”. The Illegitimate Board of AAI know this. It has been explained to them many times over many years. Continuing to suggest that they are offering “reinstatement” is a just a deliberately dishonest attempt to deceive their members and falsely present themselves as behaving with good will. The issue relating to Bylaw 59 is addressed within the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ as follows:

“a safeguard is necessary to prevent the remote possibility that a malicious motion could be passed that would damage the organization”

Dishonest quote from the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’

The Illegitimate Board of AAI first justified Bylaw 59 by stating that it was intended to stop “feminists” from taking over AAI. Subsequently, they stated that it was intended to stop “woke people” from taking over AAI (this came from the woke Directors who suspended AAI staff without pay, in part for calling religion a “retarded relic”). Now the people who passed malicious motions to remove all financial reporting and democratic accountability from AAI, are pretending that they need this Bylaw to stop malicious motions being passed. These demonstrably dishonest individuals are insisting that they must decide on behalf of atheist groups around the world, what is malicious and what is not.

In fact, true “reinstatement” is the only real solution to this debacle. The valid members must be reinstated along with the valid Bylaws, as they were before control of the organisation was transferred to a handful of dishonest individuals on an Illegitimate Board. What possible reason could there be for opposing that and insisting that only the current Illegitimate Board can control AAI?

Lies About The United Nations

In order to achieve Special Consultative Status at the United Nations, all Non-Governmental Organisations must show that they meet onerous democratic standards. The UN needs to make sure that all NGO submissions represent the consensus view of their members, and that those making submissions are democratically accountable to their members. The current Illegitimate Board of AAI destroyed this democratic accountability within the alliance by changing the Bylaws so that:

• all elections of Directors by the members were cancelled
• all AGMs at which members could hold Directors to account were cancelled
• the ability of members to pass motions binding upon the Directors was cancelled

From the perspective of the United Nations standards, these were the most consequential changes to the Bylaws imaginable. These changes meant that any submission from AAI was no longer coming from someone who was democratically elected by the international membership, where those members could hold Directors to account in a democratic forum. Rather, submissions were coming from individual self-appointed charlatans who had no mandate whatsoever from anyone at all.

For example, consider the UN submission made by AAI in 2019, which is available in full at the bottom of this page. This quite pathetic statement to the Secretary General of the United Nations includes the claim that, “none of the international human rights declarations or treaties promulgated to date explicitly provides equivalent rights for those who choose to follow no religion or have no religious beliefs”. That claim is utterly false and merely indicates that those who wrote it have no idea what they are doing. The reason why the submission is so risible, is that it was made by an Illegitimate Board, who by their own admission had never received a single vote from a single atheist group ever. Their supposed positions from which they submitted that statement were entirely fraudulent. The democratic standards that have been established by the UN, are intended to stop just this kind of drivel being submitted by just these kind of unelected imposters and pretenders.

The mechanism that the UN uses to police such charlatans is to seek a Quadrennial Report from each NGO. A full copy of the AAI Quadrennial Report for the relevant period is available at the bottom of this page. Where the UN guidance notes indicate that NGOs should list any changes to their Bylaws during the relevant period, the Illegitimate AAI Board wrote:

“After several bylaw revisions undertaken in 2018, the AAI Affiliates now select the AAI Board of Directors.”

Dishonest quote from AAI Quadrennial Report to UN

Despite the UN clearly seeking information about AAI Bylaw changes that were relevant to AAI submissions, the Illegitimate AAI Board have never informed the UN that submissions have already been made to the Secretary General by entirely unelected people. They have never informed the UN that they changed the Bylaws to ensure that they are not accountable to the members. Still to this day, the members could vote to make a specific submission to the UN, and a few individuals on the Board could instead make the opposite submission. The Illegitimate Board has never explained to the UN that under their new Bylaws the AAI Board can ignore motions adopted by the members. Instead they have engaged in juvenile sophistry, and their recent AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ explains this deliberate intention to deceive the UN as follows:

“Every part of AAI’s answer was true. No crucial information that AAI was required to reveal was omitted.”

Dishonest quote from the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’

Deliberately deceiving the United Nations by using language that could be parsed as semantically correct, is still profoundly dishonest. If anything that these people did was in any way defensible, they would have just listed the specific changes they made to the Bylaws in advance of their 2019 submission to the UN, just as the UN asked them to. The reason why they are instead playing puerile word games, is that nothing they did was in any way defensible. If they had been forthright with the UN then their status would have been immediately revoked, as the anti-democratic sham that they have become. Their status can only be maintained through deliberate deception.

Conclusion

The issues described above are just a subset of the deliberate dishonesty in the AAI ‘Disclosure Document’. Those who have issued these intentional lies in writing include; Stella Thomas, Brian Kernick, Steve Polgar and Kristina Hallmeier. If they wish to retain any semblance of honesty or dignity, they must immediately correct the record in writing. The appalling AAI ‘Disclosure Document’ that they have issued, is a demonstrable set of very harmful lies.

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• AAI Disclosure Document
• 2016 AAI AGM Presentation
• AAI Membership Report – January 2017
• Email from Fotis Frangopoulos to AAI Affiliate Members
• 2019 AAI Submission to the United Nations
• AAI Quadrennial Report to the United Nations, 2017-2020

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* A previous version of this article stated that no invoices were issued during 2017. This update was made on 11th December 2022. The update does not change the analysis, since no evidence has been produced that any Board Resolutions were carried during 2017 to remove any AAI member groups.