internationally and supported financially by the state and by its Dutch publisher. The project was authorised by Vorster; by the Minister of Information, Connie Mulder; and by Hendrik van den Bergh of the Bureau for State Security (BOSS), which also helped with its funding. In September 1972, Mulder appointed Rhoodie Secretary of Information – the Department of Information's head of "dirty tricks," on some accounts. Under him, the department began to pursue a concerted communications and propaganda programme. By early 1973, the department had allegedly been involved in the following, funded partly by loans from BOSS: The establishment of a Committee for Fairness in Sport, a front organisation which addressed sports boycotts; The establishment of a front business organisation under Gerald Sparrow called the Club of Ten, which criticised what it alleged was bias in attitudes toward the apartheid government; The establishment of a covert photo news agency, which distributed articles and photos to the European press; The purchase of a small French newspaper, Le Monde Moderne; A smear campaign against liberal politicians in the United Kingdom, including Peter Hain; Contracts with two Labour Party Members of Parliament for lobbying and spying; and A January 1974 visit to the United States, involving meetings with top politicians and the New York Times. Project Annemarie From December 1973, these initiatives were expanded and formalised. The department's new approach was to be "a no-holds-barred secret campaign of psychological warfare against foreign opinion." Vorster later said that the purpose was "to assist in a delicate and unconventional way in combating the total onslaught against South Africa," and "to withstand the subversion of our country's good image and stability." A slush fund was set up in collaboration with the Minister of Defence P. W. Botha – money was channelled to the Department of Information through the secret Defence Special Account. From April 1974, BOSS acted as banker for the Project, but the involvement of the Department of Defence was necessary to avoid the perception of inflation in BOSS's own budget. The programme, named Project Annemarie, after Rhoodie's daughter, mainly targeted Western countries, and involved 180 initiatives at an estimated cost of between R65 million and R85 million, or between $73 million and $76 million, over five years. Participants said it included: Backdoor diplomacy with African countries and with Israel; Purchase of a 50 percent interest in UPITN, a television news service based in London; Extensive