Thursday, July 30, 2009

DUBLIN'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Why do our political leaders gloss over Dublin’s dirty little secret?
By Stephen King
Irish Examiner
July 15, 2009

Sad to say, it’s a telling sign that when a statue to a Nazi collaborator goes up in Dublin, the least that happens is a splash of emulsion. Can you imagine if a statue to Marshal Pétain were erected in Paris? Or one to Quisling in Oslo? Or even of Mussolini in Italy?

SINN Féin have a way of testing everyone’s patience. If asked "do you condemn attacks on property?", I suspect 99% of us would say "yes". But when that attack amounts to spray-painting a monument to a Nazi collaborator? Now that’s a difficult one.

Would I succumb to the temptation to do it myself? Certainly not.

Would I encourage someone else to do it? Emphatically, no.

But, if I were a judge, would I fine or jail someone for doing it? Errr...

Yes, not for the first time, the Seán Russell statue in Dublin has been vandalised, just weeks after the latest version was unveiled with much pomp by the spuriously official-sounding National Graves Association (NGA).

Some very naughty person has painted "Hitler’s friend" on the statue. For some reason, republicans from the Provo tradition sound surprised. "There seems to be some group in the area who are hellbent on destroying it," Cllr Christy Burke was quoted as saying.

I wonder why that might be, Christy? He now wants CCTV cameras trained on the site in Fairview Park. I wondered why Burke resigned from Sinn Féin last month. Now we might have a clue: unlike Sinn Féin, he supports CCTV cameras to combat crime. Or maybe he just supports them when it’s the "desecration" of the republican holy of holies? Perhaps he’ll write in and let us know.

According to Burke, all these attacks are "costing the NGA a lot of money". If you do write in, Christy, maybe you could explain where all this money came from in the first place? Otherwise, we’ll be forced to draw our own conclusions.

And while you’re at it, could we have a clear condemnation of those who scrawl "IRA" on roads and walls, and splatter propagandist murals on the sides of people’s houses for them, without being asked?

I know, I know: I’m in danger of sounding facetious. But if Provo types, even recently resigned ones, don’t understand what all the fuss is about, they live in smaller bubbles than we thought.

To recap on the history for a moment... Seán Russell was the leader of the IRA who declared war on Britain in 1939 and launched a bombing campaign in British cities, complementing that of the Luftwaffe. The IRA campaign claimed seven dead and almost 200 wounded, the vast, vast majority of them civilians.

Using the novelist Francis Stuart as an emissary, the IRA had opened up contact with the Abwehr, the military-controlled German foreign intelligence service. Twelve Abwehr agents landed in the Free State between 1939 and 1943, aiming to make contact with the IRA and develop plans for joint action in the North.

Éamon de Valera responded swiftly to this direct threat to his pledge that Ireland would not be used as a base for attacks on Britain and introduced the Offences Against the State Act. Several imprisoned IRA men went on hunger strike in response and rather than see them die, de Valera released some.

Sensing weakness, the IRA launched a raid on the Irish army’s munitions store in Phoenix Park. Having learned his lesson, de Valera warned the IRA that Easter Rising veterans or not, such activities would not be tolerated. The IRA, in turn, started referring to him as "Judas".

That brief summary would probably not be contested, even by Christy Burke or Larry O’Toole, the leader of the Sinn Féin group on Dublin City Council, who laid a wreath at the recent unveiling, although Sinn Féin/NGA representatives sometimes overlook the dead and wounded, preferring to stress the attacks in Britain were aimed at telecommunications installations.

The real question is, though, was Russell justified? From a Provo point of view, there is no question: "England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity", as Matt Doyle of the NGA puts it. Besides, Russell wasn’t involved in sending Jews to death camps or anything (although his convenient death from a burst stomach ulcer in 1940 on board a Nazi U-boat — followed by burial complete with swastika and German military honours — means we can only speculate how far he would have taken his alliance with the Führer).

If it was quite as simple as that, many nationally-minded people might be tempted to shrug. It does beg the question, though, why invest all those euro in a massive bronze statue to the man? (It’s "a significant work of art", you know, with a GPS tracking device in its head, apparently). The war on Britain was, after all, a pathetic failure.

As another NGA apologist puts it delicately, "the campaign ran itself into the ground long before any tangible republican objectives could be secured".

Whether or not Russell was actually doctrinally a Nazi is debatable. What is known from several accounts of people then in the IRA was that Nazi sympathies were strong in republican circles. When news of German victories came through on the radio in Crumlin Road jail in Belfast, the IRA prisoners cheered to the rafters.

But for most people, it was very possible to seek an end to partition, support Irish neutrality in the Second World War and still have been able to see that Irish issues paled beside those at stake when the free world was fighting for its very survival.

For the NGA to point out that Russell also sought aid from the Soviet Union a decade earlier and argue, on that basis, that he couldn’t have been a fascist only reveals another truth: that Seán Russell was a complete fanatic with a very strange set of priorities. Moreover, he was a fool if he thought Hitler would conquer Britain and turn it into a German colony but leave little Ireland blissfully alone to go its own sweet way.

NOW it is true that all sorts of people — not least those living under the yoke of the 20th century’s other monstrous ideology, Marxist-Leninism — formed tactical alliances with Nazi Germany. But when those people are honoured, it’s cause for most of Europe to demand their political descendents be banned.

Sad to say, it’s a telling sign that when a statue to a Nazi collaborator goes up in Dublin, the least that happens is a splash of emulsion. Can you imagine if a statue to Marshal Pétain were erected in Paris? Or one to Quisling in Oslo? Or even of Mussolini in Italy?

Couldn’t a superficially cogent argument be made that these men too were not Nazis in the strictest sense, but merely entered alliances with Hitler for the greater good of their homelands? But wouldn’t such arguments be met by riots in the streets?

Needless to say, I condemn rioting too, but why is it that Dublin’s dirty little secret — or should that be Dublin City Council’s little secret, for the park where the Russell statue stands belongs to them? — isn’tbeing raised in the Dáil, in Brussels and beyond? In a society that extols human equality, officially despises antisemitism, holds gay and straight people, black and white people to be fundamentally worthy of respect, why has the very existence of a monument to Nazi collaboration not been questioned by anyone higher up the political pecking order than local councillors from Fine Gael and Labour?

Seán Russell is a disgrace, but so is the omerta sometimes from people who, in their heart of hearts, know better.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, July 15, 2009

http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/stephen-king/why-do-our-political-leaders-gloss-over-dublins-dirty-little-secret-96349.html#ixzz0MoJYL6Xy

Roseanne Barr in Hitler Drag: I Don't Even want to Know what this is all about ...

"Hitler Roseanne For Heeb Magazine"

The "Family": Lawmakers Part of Secret "Christian Mafia" in Washington?

Related: "Michael Jackson and the Fellowship Foundation Cult"

By American Atheists
www.opposingviews.com
July 28, 2009

A mushrooming scandal over members of the U.S. congress and a shadowy religious "fellowship"based in Washington, DC is attracting more news coverage and questions, and could lead to calls that the House Ethics Committee open an immediate investigation.

The story began when Sen. John Ensign admitted to having an extramarital affair with a former aide. What made the tabloid aspect more salacious, though, was that Ensign -- a strong crusader against separation of church and state -- is linked to a religious-right
group that maintains an anonymous enclave in Washington, DC where a number of key politicians, including Sen. Ensign, reside while congress is in session. Dubbed "the family" or "the Fellowship," the unmarked building is also the venue for constant prayer, bible meetings, and now, it seems, political strategy brain storming, spin-control and campaign fund raising.

Ensign's hypocrisy and un-masking has focused media attention on the "Christian mafia" and raised questions about what is taking place behind closed doors of the C Street house "in the name of the lord."

-- Just eight days after the Ensign scandal made headlines, a political action committee with ties to the disgraced senator made a $5,000 contribution to the campaign of another "Fellowship" member and resident, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee. Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Andy Sher noted: "Ensign's political action committee, Battle Born PAC, contributed the money on June 24 according to Federal Election Committee records. Wamp's campaign received the contribution on June 29, his Tennessee Registry of Election Finance shows."

One Wamp-connected operative , John Crisp refused to discuss the donation, other than to say that "This is important because of how hard Zach works... for the people of Tennessee."

Others weren't so sure. State Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester questioned the timing and circumstances, telling reporters: "It would seem to me that if you were running for governor and you were running on a set of moral values that Zach Wamp seems to talk about, you'd be sort of reluctant to receive financial support from an admitted adulterer."

Wamp also reported a $1,000 contribution from the Mint Political Action Committee linked to another religious right partisan, U.S. Sen. Jeff DeMint (R.-SC). "Numerous news accounts" link DeMint to the same C Street enclave as Wamp and Ensign, but the senator's office is now denying this.

-- Somewhat off the radar at present is South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican who is still working through his own imbroglio involving an adulterous affair with a South American woman. Sanford is a member of the "Fellowship" and reportedly received "spiritual counseling" at the C Street house. We also should not forget about US Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) now charged by his estranged wife with having an affair while residing at the "Fellowship" residence.

-- How far will "Fellowship" residents and members go in avoiding media scrutiny, or even official inquiries by congress? One disturbing indicator is a July 22 piece on the Buzzflash web blog by Mark Karlin, referring to material unearthed by Jeff Sharlet,
author of "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power." The latter writes:

Family leaders consider their political network to be Christ's avant garde, an elite that transcends not just conventional morality but also earthly laws regulating lobbying. In the Family's early days, they debated registering as "a lobby for God's Kingdom." Instead, founder Abraham Vereide decided that the group could be more effective by working personally with politicians. "The more invisible you can make your organization," Vereide's successor, current leader Doug Coe preaches, "the more influence you can have." That's true -- which is why we have laws requiring lobbyists to identify themselves as such.

But David Coe, Doug Coe's son and heir apparent, calls himself simply a friend to men such as John Ensign, whom he guided through the coverup of his affair. I met the younger Coe when I lived for several weeks as a member of the Family. He's a surprising source of counsel, spiritual or otherwise. Attempting to explain what it means to be chosen for leadership like King David was -- or Mark Sanford, according to his own estimate -- he asked a young man who'd put himself, body and soul, under the Family's authority, "Let's say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?" The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. "No," answered Coe, "I wouldn't." Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he's among what Family leaders refer to as the "new chosen." If you're chosen, the normal rules don't apply.

It's a statement that should concerns about transparency on C Street. Will "Fellowship" members charged with inappropriate behavior cover for each other? If so , the term "Christian mafia" becomes most appropriate given the "code of silence" or "omerta"
being practiced on C Street.

-- There are reports that some "Fellowship" operatives in high places are now seeking cover amidst the widening scandal and public attention. According to the Detroit News, for instance, U.S. Rep.Bart Stupak now claims that "he does little more than sleep in a room he rents there."

Another "Fellowship" member, Rep. Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania (a member of the Congressional "Values" Coalition that promotes religious right legislation on Capitol Hill) issued a statement that he does not reside at the C Street lair.

For the public, all of this must raise concerns about what is taking place behind the doors at the C Street retreat and residence. Were powerful individuals like these representatives linked in such intimate and peculiar fashion to, say, a corporate interest
group or international mission, there would be an outcry for an immediate congressional investigation. The C Street residence, however, enjoys the mantle of religious probity. Its members do not seem to be living up to that standard.

Links to the C Street Scandal:

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/21/tennessee-wamp-took-campaign-money-nevadas-ensign/?breakingnews
Tennessee: Wamp took campaign money from Nevada's Ensign State campaign finance records show U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., accepted a $5,000 contribution from U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who lives in a Capitol Hill Christian fellowship house with Mr. Wamp. The contribution came 13 days after Sen. Ensign admitted to the world he had had an affair with a former staffer. Sen. Ensign's political action committee, Battle Born PAC, contributed the money on June 24, according to Federal Election Commission records. Rep. Wamp reported receiving the contribution to his gubernatorial campaign on June 29, according to his Tennessee Registry of Election Finance disclosure.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/9044
"C Street" Cabal of Anti-Democracy Fundamentalist Senators and Reps Wouldn't Turn Over Child Rapist Among Them to Police? Kudos to Rachel Maddow for latching on to the captivating and chilling story about not just the lascivious and potentially illegal activities of some of the "C Street" Family, but -- more importantly -- focusing on their belief that they are chosen by God to lead and infiltrate our government. And she hasn't stopped pursuing this startling story, defying the normal news cycle of a nano-second of coverage unless it's Michael Jackson's death or a blonde white girl disappearing in Aruba.

What gets lost in the disgusting details of Ensign's adulterous affair, Mark Sanford's (an associate member of the Family) lust for an Argentine, and former Congressman Chip Pickering's adulterous bonking on-site at the C Street "Christian fellowship house" is
something that Maddow has repeatedly come back to: these men don't believe they are responsible to moral or governmental laws. If they deviate from the "righteous path," God is only testing their strength, because they are the ones divinely chosen to lead -- and it is weakness to succumb to remorse about one's "misbehavior."

That is why Mark Sanford said he won't resign and compared himselfto King David, who slept adulterously with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed.

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-lawmakers-part-of-secret-christian-mafia-in-washington-r-1248803228

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Report: Nonlethal Weapons Target Brain, Mimic Schizophrenia

Also see: "THE MILITARY USE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC MICROWAVE AND MIND CONTROL TECHNOLOGY"

Wired: " ... Of all the crazy, bizarre less-lethal weapons that have been proposed, the use of microwaves to target the human mind remains the most disturbing. ... "

Re: These "weapons that have been proposed ... " - These weapons have been perfected and turned on untold hapless victims, but Wired claims they've only been "proposed" in a Pentagon report. Wired still can't find the Black Budget and thinks it's "bizarre." Willful denial is bizarre to me, and so is turning a back to the victims, who've been crying out in pain for decades. Wired is therefore bizarre to me and always has been, because it suffocates with a vacuum of glib, programmed assumptions that never fail to trump reality.

"This concept is still very theoretical" is false. The report could only have been declassified to give the wrong impression about the advanced state of classified EM weapons technology.

A comment attached to the Wired story shows more insight into these "theoretical" weapons than the article itself: "I spoke with a couple of IEEE's who are very familiar with the projected sound technology at American Technologies, Inc in San Diego. It's one which projects sound (voice, whatever) into one's mind bypassing the ear and is only heard by the person receiving the signal. That is the one Woody Norris invented many years ago. Woody Norris has brought it to IEEE meetings to demonstrate the newer upgrades (such as great reduction in size to something that looks like a grey 9x11 sheet of paper. If you want to have first hand experience to know that it exists and put an end to your doubting journalism position once and for all, putting an end to speculation of it's existence vs myth or 'imaginary weapon,' just give American Technologies Inc a call and set up a demonstration. ... Please go ahead and make that call. I'd love to read about it on Wired.com the Danger Room. - Beth"

- AC

Categories: Bizarro, Lasers And Ray Guns, Less-Lethal
By Sharon Weinberger
Wired
February 18, 2008

Of all the crazy, bizarre less-lethal weapons that have been proposed, the use of microwaves to target the human mind remains the most disturbing.

The question has always been: is this anything more than urban myth? We may not have the final answer to this question, but a newly declassified Pentagon report, Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons, obtained by a private citizen under the Freedom of Information Act, provides some fascinating tidbits on a variety of exotic weapons ideas.

Among those discussed are weapons that could disrupt the brain, as well as my longtime obsession, the "Voice of God" device, which creates voices in people's heads. As the report notes, "Application of the microwave hearing technology could facilitate a private message transmission. It may be useful to provide a disruptive condition to a person not aware of the technology.

Not only might it be disruptive to the sense of hearing, it could be psychologically devastating if one suddenly heard 'voices within one's head.'"
Voices in your head disturbing? Heck, yeah, considering it's something most people associate with schizophrenia. The age-old question is whether such a weapon is possible. According to the report, it's not only possible, it's already been demonstrated in crude form:

Because the frequency of the sound heard is dependent on the pulse characteristics of the RF energy, it seems possible that this technology could be developed to the point where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except hat it could only be heard within a person's head.

In one experiment, communication of the words from one to ten using "speech modulated" microwave energy was successfully demonstrated. Microphones next to the person experiencing the voice could not pick up the sound. Additional development of this would open up a wide range of possibilities.
....
This technology requires no extrapolation to estimate its usefulness. Microwave energy can be applied at a distance, and the appropriate technology can be adapted from existing radar units. Aiming devices likewise are available but for special circumstances which require extreme specificity, there may be a need for additional development. Extreme directional specificity would be required to transmit a message to a single hostage surrounded by his captors. Signals can be transmitted long distances (hundreds of meters) using current technology. Longer distances and more sophisticated signal types will require more bulky equipment, but it seems possible to transmit some of the signals at closer ranges using man-portable equipment.

If voices in your head aren't disturbing enough, the report also goes on to theorize about a microwave weapon that could use electromagnetic pulses to disrupt the brain's functioning. It would work through "a rhythmic-activity synchronization of brain neurons that disrupts normal cortical control of the corticospinal and corticobulbar pathways that disrupts normal functioning of the spinal motor neurons which control muscle and body movements."

This concept is still very theoretical, the report notes:

Application of electromagnetic pulses is also a conceptual nonlethal technology that uses electromagnetic energy to induce neural synchrony and disruption of voluntary muscle control. The effectiveness of this concept has not been demonstrated. However, from past work in evaluating the potential for electromagnetic pulse generator to affect humans, it is estimated that sufficiently strong internal fields can be generated within the brain to trigger neurons.

Sadly, there's little context for the report, which is dated 1998, and no specific references to current programs or research, if any, about such weapons.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/report-nonletha.html

The Corporate Roots of Auschwitz

Holocaust Survivor gets PhD for Thesis on Roots of Auschwitz
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent
14/07/2009

At the ripe age of 81, a Holocaust survivor from Haifa has received a PhD for a thesis showing how Auschwitz-Birkenau began as a camp for coerced laborers working for a mismanaged Nazi industrial project.

"My life never had much of a linear or logical course," Eliezer Schwartz said when asked why he decided to enter academia so late in the game. Before he began researching the Nazi concentration and extermination camp in Poland, Schwartz worked for many years as project head and urban planner for Solel Boneh, the Israeli construction giant.

When Schwartz retired at 75, his three grandchildren advised him to write a doctoral thesis, which he wrote with pen and paper. "Computer skills are a bit much for me now," he said. His non-academic, very practical life experience gave Schwartz a special edge over more bookish historians when writing his thesis for the University of Haifa.

This practical experience came in handy when he started his thesis about how an industrial park that was built 3 kilometers from Auschwitz may have affected the famous death camp. Schwartz, whose only scholastic achievement prior to the age of 45 was a high school diploma, found that mismanagement at the industrial complex which the German concern I.G. Farben was trying to build near Auschwitz, required tens of thousands of slave workers, most of them Jewish.

Thus, according to his thesis, the camp at Auschwitz came to house more and more Jews as early on as 1940 - two and half years before the camp itself became a death factory where over one million Jews were murdered.

By reviewing the factory books and other documents, Schwartz - who was born in Satu Mare, Romania - was able to show that the reason that the Farben compound needed so many slaves was gross mismanagement.

"This is counterintuitive, since we are talking about a German-built huge complex," he said. "To understand how a people that were considered meticulous and precise did such clumsy work, you will have to read the full study."

The Nazi project, which began in 1940, exceeded its 1943 deadline for completion by two years, and in fact was still in construction when the area was liberated by the Red Army. Out of tens of thousands of coerced labors, some 30,000 slave workers died there in work accidents and other causes.

"The project had a critical contribution to the enlargement of the capacity at Auschwitz and its transformation into a central reservoir of work force for Nazi Germany's war industry, and later as an extermination center," Schwartz said. Ironically, he adds, I.G. Farben also manufactured the gas that was used to kill Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau, although the plant near the camp was meant to produce rubber and synthetic oil.

The plant's managers - who hosted Heinrich Himler on his frequent visits - were tried after the war at Nuremberg, and received prison sentences of a few years each. "The Germans don't like to be reminded of all this business," Schwartz said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100119.html

Vitter is for "Core Conservative Values"

David Vitter claims the reason the GOP is so unpopular is because Republicans haven't been "conservative" enough - not because they are pathological liars. "The Washington Times article did not mention anything about the D.C. Madam scandal. ... " - AC


Vitter Responds To Voinovich: I'm For "Core Conservative Values," Not For Straying From Them
By Eric Kleefeld
July 29, 2009

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is responding sternly to Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), who blamed Southerners for dragging the Republican Party's fortunes down.

"I'm on the side of conservatives getting back to core conservative values," Vitter told the Washington Times. "There are a lot of us from the South who hold those value, which I think the party is supposed to be about. We strayed from them in the past few years, and that's why we performed so badly in the national elections."

As for Voinovich, Vitter said: "He's a moderate, really wishy-washy."

Speaking of conservatives who have strayed from core values ... David Vitter was publicly identified as a former client of prostitutes, and admitted in 2007 to an unspecified "serious sin." The Washington Times article did not mention anything about the D.C. Madam scandal. ...

Continued: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/vitter-responds-to-voinovich-im-for-core-conservative-values-not-for-straying-from-them.php

US Military to Set Up in Colombia

therealnews.com

Hylton: Rest of South America has reason to be alarmed by future US military presence on Colombian bases

With the hemisphere fixated on the coup d'etat in Honduras, the Colombian military announced it would be opening up some of its military bases to be shared with the US military. This caused immediate condemnation from the leadership of Colombia's neighbors, Ecuador and Venezuela. Forrest Hylton, expert on Colombian affairs, believes that the two countries are justified in their reservations about the move, given the potential the base offers and the recent history of US surveillance activity in the region. On the other end, Hylton points out some discomforting activities in the Colombian military, an institution that is the fifth largest recipient of US military aid. With the US now seeking even deeper ties with that same military, Hylton concludes that "Colombia's increasing violations of human rights in its pursuit of counter-insurgency, doesn't seem to have any impact on the flow of US aid."

Forrest Hylton is the author of Evil Hour in Colombia (Verso, 2006), and with Sinclair Thomson, co-author of Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics (Verso, 2007). He is a regular contributor to New Left Review and NACLA Report on the Americas.

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4058

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

German Police Seek Arrest of Far-Right Politician

www.dw-world.de
28.07.2009

The NPD doesn't stay out of the headlines for long

German prosecutors have charged a state parliamentarian of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) with inciting racial hatred. Prosecutors in the southwest city of Saarbruecken said on Monday they had laid charges against Udo Pastoers, 56,for labelling Germany a "Jews' republic" at a rally in the city in February.

Pastoers, the NPD's parliamentary leader in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, tried unsuccessfully to become the party's national leader earlier this year.

Prosecutors said his statement deliberately recalled anti-Semitic propaganda used by the Nazi's to disparage Germany's Weimar Republic government of the 1920s. He is also accused of maligning Turkish immigrants during his address, allegedly referring to Turkish men as "semen cannons" who were overwhelming the country with their offspring.

Prosecutors said Pastoers made further "anti-Semitic statements, personal attacks, historical distortions and tasteless remarks which were not, however, of criminal significance."

The state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania voted to lift Pastoers' immunity earlier this month, clearing the way for charges after an investigation was opened in March. He is expected to appear in court later this year.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency monitors the NPD and has described it as racist, anti-Semitic and historically revisionist. Many German politicians want to shut the party down because they regard it as a threat to democracy.

Although the NPD has no seats in Germany's national parliament, the Bundestag, it does hold a significant number of seats in the legislatures of two of Germany's formerly communist eastern states - Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. ...

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4522521,00.html

Monday, July 27, 2009

The Council of Conservative Citizens

Conservative group pushes racism
By James Hendrix
Northsider.com

A Republican state senator recently spoke to a national meeting of the Council of Conservative Citizens in Jackson. Some local liberals as well as the local progressive weekly alternative rag sharply criticized her for doing so as well as the state Republican Party chairman for not condemning her actions to their satisfaction. Since I did not know much about the Council of Conservative Citizens, I decided to check out their Web site. Buckle your seatbelts.

On the national organization's Web site, six of the nine "stories" posted are about race-related matters. For a group that touts itself as a leading conservative organization, there is no mention of taxes, deficit spending, expanding government, the erosion of civil liberties but there are more than a few words given to what blacks are doing to whites.

The Web site's blogs make for interesting reading. One accuses New York of "declaring war on white people." It blames the train operator's falling asleep causing the train wreck in Washington, D.C., on "diversity hiring," never mind that D.C. is heavily minority in population. (Someone should tell him that in D.C., hiring a white person would be the diversity hire.) He also mentions blacks robbing graves in Chicago.

Then there is the anti-Semitism. The same blogger refers to an L.A. Times article about Michael Jackson as a "piece of Jewish garbage" and opines about Steve McNair's death:

"McNair may have been a decent guy, but nothing can hide the obvious truth that wherever blacks go, crime, death, and misery follow. The sports channels will recount all McNair’s stats as they lionize him as a hero and great American. I’ll certainly rank him well above Michael Jackson, but let’s not get carried away. Could you imagine the howls of laughter if the sports TV Jews like Chris Berman, Rich Eisen, Linda Cohn, (the list could go on and on)"

Christians don't escape their ire either as the Family Research Council, attacked by liberals everywhere for being conservative and Christian in nature, apparently doesn't meet his definition of conservatism:

"Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, and the evangelical’s man in D.C., recently held a rally in the nation’s capital to oppose same-sex marriage. There were several speakers at the rally -- Perkins, the FRC’s Uncle Tom “Bishop” Harry Jackson, some brown guys who can’t speak English, etc..." He even bashes Billy Graham. You got it. Even Billy Graham is the enemy. Other money quotes from this blogger:

"The sooner the GOP collapses, and is replaced by a party that will speak up for white people, the better."

"Anyone who thinks free speech can survive in a multiracial America is dreaming."

Another blog on the Web site has the headline "Saving the White Race" and states:

"The civility in this Forced Union is 3,000 miles wide, but only an inch deep. And anytime you come into contact with murderous negroes or other non-Whites, that civility has collapsed." So murderous whites don't cause a collapse in civility but non-whites do? Does that mean murderous whites are more civilized than murderous non-whites? Oooook.

Over at the Alabama chapter's Web site there is a post titled "Stuff black people don't like" with the above picture and a link to a Web site containing black jokes. The chapter has a list of "recommended reading." Here is a taste of the vintage found in this winery of racism:

The Citizens’ Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-64? by Neil R. McMillan

“You and Segregation” by former Georgia Sen. Herman E. Talmadge

“Mississippi’s Defiant Years, 1953-73? by Erle Johnston

“The Authentic History of the Ku Klux Klan, 1865-1877? by Susan Davis

“Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization” by former Mississippi Sen. Theodore Bilbo

This organization is not a conservative group as conservatives believe in a limited government that is color-blind, free-market capitalism, strong national defense, and civil liberties for all. Racism has no place in conservatism or the Republican Party. Mississippi Republicans have no business whatsoever speaking to this group as Republicans. The chairman needs to condemn this group in no uncertain terms as racism and anti-Semitism have no place in the Republican big tent.

A group like this shouldn't get the attention it has recently as it is a fringe group but since a Republican state senator decided to welcome them, the onus is on the Republican Party to show these guys the door and make it clear the council is not welcome to Republicans or true conservatives. William F. Buckley and others threw out the Birchers when it became clear the Birchers were not true conservatives. Mr. White, Gov. Barbour, and others should do the same and show the Council of Conservative Citizens the door.

James Hendrix is a Northsider.

http://www.northsidesun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Conservative+group+pushes+racism%20&id=3011566-Conservative+group+pushes+racism&instance=homeopinion

Book Review: Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia

Daniel Carpi. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series 17. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1994. ix + 342 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-87451-662-5.


Reviewed by Guillaume de Syon, Albright College.
H-Net Reviews
Published by H-France (July, 1997)

On January 4, 1939, German Ambassador Hans Georg von Mackensen met with Benito Mussolini to discuss the treatment of Jews in Italy and left with the assurance that Italian anti-Jewish legislation, first enacted in 1938, would soon be toughened up. Despite such discussions carried out time and again between German and Italian officials, Fascist Italy is considered to this day a "special case" in the history of the Holocaust, in that Jews fared better under Mussolini than under other Fascist regimes, thanks in part to the Italian population's complacent behavior and in spite of the government's anti-semitic policies. The story remains ambiguous, however, due to the varying positions of local Italian authorities, as shown in Italian-Jewish memoirs and scholarly studies.[1] The issue becomes even more complex when examining the status of Jews in Italian-occupied territories. One such case, that of southern France and Tunisia between 1940 and 1943, when Mussolini fell from power, is the subject of Daniel Carpi's remarkable study.

Divided into three parts to cover different administrations, Carpi's work considers Italian interactions with German administrators and with Vichy authorities in southern France and in Tunisia. As the author defines it early on, Italian political maneuvering was the factor of two important variables. The first was Italy's protection of its citizens, including Italian Jews, in occupied territories (including those where German authorities were present) for economic reasons. The second factor was the peculiarity of Italy's war effort, based in part on an autonomous foreign policy which called for the annexation of certain territories. These included the French areas east of the Rhone river as well as Tunisia. Hence, both factors would dominate relations with French and German authorities in these occupied territories, and would, for a while at least, serve to afford some protection to Jews living there.

Whereas in the first two years of World War II, misunderstandings and disagreements over the implementation of racial laws in territories occupied by Italy and Germany could be overlooked, by the summer of 1942, the German decision to deport all Jews from occupied territories regardless of nationality caused a quasi-open rift between Fascists and Nazis. It is true that Italy yielded rather quickly to German pressure in the case of Croatia and Greece, but when the same request came from both German and Vichy authorities about Italian Jews in France, the matter was quite different and complex, which is the reason for Carpi's focus.

German-Italian relations in the matter of deportations remained ambiguous until the fall of Mussolini (September 1943), in part because of the behavior of individuals involved in the decision-making process. Matters were further complicated by the fact that while Fascist policy against Italian Jews on Italian soil had been legally applied since 1938 (when the "Manifesto of the Italian race" was published), a different attitude emerged regarding Italian Jews on foreign or occupied territory. The intervention of Italian authorities in favor of "their" Jews was a matter of primarily economic concern: when the threat of aryanization (confiscation of Jewish property by the Nazi authorities) loomed, the Italian government interpreted this as an attack on its sovereignty. According to Carpi, Jews were viewed as contributors to Italian economic life around the Mediterranean and thus were potentially useful for ensuring Italian influence as a whole. This pragmatic stance, rather than a humanitarian one, seems to have dominated Italian officials' conduct on Jewish deportations from foreign territories. Of course, another reason for Italian officials' ambiguous behavior, to which Carpi only alludes, may have been confusion over the interpretation of Italian law. As legal analyst Olivier Camy recently noted, Italian racial legislation concerning occupied territories was confusing and even contradictory, whether it sought to incorporate the tough rules in place in Ethiopia and Libya, or to take into account economic necessity.[2]

Generally, then, the initial Italo-German dispute over the Jews took place in occupied and Vichy France and resulted in a rejection of German proposals either to repatriate Italian Jews or deport them to the east. On the other hand, the Italian foreign ministry did consent to socio-economic restrictions and to the requirement that all Italian Jews wear the Star of David. But by then, the Italian negotiating position had begun to weaken as the Allies landed in North Africa, threatening Italian military positions in the Mediterranean. The fall of Mussolini changed the situation completely as German authorities took over control.

In the French areas occupied by Italy, Carpi argues that the Italian authorities remained generally disinterested in enforcing measures against Jews, at least until massive deportations from Vichy France began in 1942. The Italian Consul in Paris, Gustavo Orlandini, then intervened with the German authorities to obtain the liberation of the Italian Jews who had been taken into custody. Still at the time, the Italian government had never officially indicated what policy it was following, tending to act on a case-by-case basis. The dynamic changed again when the Vichy zone was invaded in November 1942 and a further Italian occupation area was established in southeastern France. The Italians then informed both German and French authorities that they would control all matters pertaining to "their" own area: even though the French administration remained in place and functioned according to Vichy directives, every major decision would first have to be cleared with the Italian officials.

Soon after, a struggle between Vichy and Italian representatives ensued about the transfer of non-French Jews out of the Italian zone and into the German one. Through the intervention of the Italian Consul in Nice, Alberto Calisse, and in Rome of the Jewish banker, Angelo Donatti (who represented the interests of the Italian Jewish community), all non-French Jews (not just Italian ones) became exempted from any measures which Vichy sought to apply. This Italian action, in Carpi's view, could only have occurred if officials in both the Italian occupation zone and in the Italian foreign ministry were disposed to disregard Vichy and German laws concerning Jews on Italian-held territory. The critical result was the buying of valuable time for Italian authorities--and obviously for Jewish refugees--in dealing with both Vichy and German counterparts until the Italian armistice on September 8, 1943 when German troops and members of the Parti populaire français began their round-ups.

A pattern of antagonism similar to the one between Vichy, German, and Italian authorities also existed between French and Italian authorities in Tunisia. This section of Carpi's study is the most informative, casting new light on conditions in French North Africa. There, a split of opinion led the French Petainistes to fear Italian domination while Jews hoped for it. Following the landing of Axis troops in Tunisia in late 1942 (to parry an Allied attack), the Italians took strong and successful action to protect the approximately 5,500 Italian Jews in Tunisia (the Germans, fearing a rift, agreed to their allies' demands), although they did not protect Jews of other nationalities (contrary to what occurred in southern France). This contradictory policy poses the question, which Carpi does not consider, of how similar or dissimilar such conduct was to the Italian treatment of Jews in Libya, where racial legislation was strictly enforced, also affecting some Italian Jews. This wider frame of reference would shed further light on the peculiarities of Italian Jewish legislation, for example, by showing in what way official behavior may have reflected, or not, the apartheid-like laws of 1937 applied in other Italian-dominated areas (such as Ethiopia).

Aside from a couple of misspellings of proper nouns, the translation from Hebrew reads well and the scholarship fills a gap in the historiography of Fascist behavior in the Holocaust. This thorough investigation is at times exceedingly complex because of the intricacies of tri-national political relations in a period of world war. One wishes that Carpi had taken additional space to explore further some of the motivations of the Italian officials in going the extra step to save certain Jews and not others. As he himself points out throughout this exhaustive study, protection of the Jews by the Italians went beyond political and economic considerations, yet the personalist aspect remains beyond the scope of what Carpi set out to do in his otherwise excellent book.

Notes

[1] Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz (1959); Nicola Caraciolo's Uncertain Refuge (Urbana, 1995.)

[2] See "La doctrine italienne," in Le droit de Vichy (Paris, 1995), pp. 469-539.

Copyright © 1996, H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list.

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewsh9.htm

The Neo-Nazis of Mongolia: Swastikas Against China

By Mitch Moxley
Time
Jul. 27, 2009

The Reich stuff

In the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, "Shoot the Chinese" is spray-painted on a brick wall near a movie theater. A pair of swastikas and the words "Killer Boys ...! Danger!" can be read on a fence in an outlying neighborhood of yurt dwellings. Graffiti like this, which can be found all over the city, is the work of Mongolia's neo-Nazis, an admittedly implausible but often intimidating, and occasionally violent, movement.

Ulan Bator is home to three ultra-nationalist groups claiming a combined membership of several thousand — a not insignificant number in a country of just 3 million people. They have adopted Nazi paraphernalia and dogma, and are vehemently anti-Chinese. One group, Blue Mongolia, has admitted to shaving the heads of local women found sleeping with Chinese men. Its leader was convicted last year of murdering his daughter's Mongolian boyfriend, who had merely studied in China.

The neo-Nazis may be on society's fringe, but they represent the extreme of a very real current of nationalism. Sandwiched between Russia and China, with foreign powers clamoring for a slice of the country's vast mineral riches, many Mongolians fear economic and ethnic colonization. This has prompted displays of hostility toward outsiders and slowed crucial foreign-investment negotiations. ...

CONTINUED: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1910893,00.html?iid=tsmodule

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Bastard Children of the RAND Corporation

NYT

Link to a Times review of the book: SOLDIERS OF REASON: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire, by Alex Abella (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15.95.) “All of us are bastard children of RAND,” Abella writes in this comprehensive history, the think tank’s first. RAND helped shape nuclear strategy, health care (it developed the idea of deductibles and co-payments) and, through its championing of rational choice theory, the Reagan revolution and the current economic crisis. Not to mention the Vietnam War.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/books/review/PaperRow-t.html

Say what? "CHAMPIONS" WHO SHAPED "THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS" ...

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Fresno-Area Lawyer not Shy about Taking on the CIA

By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers
July 24, 2009

WASHINGTON — Fresno-area attorney Brian C. Leighton likes to speak his mind, but the CIA would rather he just shut up.

Now, after 15 years in the shadows, Leighton's lawsuit on behalf of a former narcotics officer has found the sunlight. A federal judge's ruling unsealing the case called Horn v. Huddle reveals extraordinary allegations and curious courtroom maneuvering.

"I've had to put up with a lot of (expletive)," Leighton said.

The 59-year-old Modesto High School and Fresno State graduate says he's been threatened with prosecution for revealing secrets. He's been told his secretary can't type legal briefs because she lacks a security clearance. Even a federal judge says government attorneys have engaged in "misconduct" and "misrepresentations."

And after all this, the case that Leighton first filed in August 1994 may just be heating up.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington formally unsealed Horn v. Huddle and hundreds of documents associated with it. The extensive filings depict a complicated history and one fundamental claim: That State Department and CIA officials illegally eavesdropped on former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Richard Horn in Burma.

The previously undisclosed record shows how Lamberth has lost all patience with CIA and Justice Department attorneys, several of whom he now says misled him about the covert status of a CIA officer. Some government attorneys face potential sanctions.

"The only thing I can see you've done is try to stall at every turn," a clearly furious Lamberth told Justice Department attorneys in a May 19 hearing, a previously sealed transcript shows. "You handcuffed the court with this nonsense."

Not least, the newly revealed record shows the effort poured into a lawsuit many might once have considered quixotic.

"I'm a bulldog," Leighton said. "I don't give up."

For its part, the Justice Department stressed through a spokesman that "this is an ongoing matter" and declined to comment. A CIA spokesman has said the agency takes its legal obligations seriously.

At first blush, Leighton may seem an unlikely antagonist in a D.C.-centered case. After graduating from Humphreys College law school, he spent six years as a Fresno-based prosecutor with the U.S. Attorneys Office. He's now a solo practitioner with an office in Clovis and a roster of farm clients.

Most notably, the self-styled libertarian has represented San Joaquin Valley farmers who object to paying mandatory fees into agricultural marketing orders that promote the table grape, raisin, cherry and cut flower industries, among others.

Leighton and Washington, D.C.-based lawyer James Moody, who's also joined him in the Horn case, contend the agricultural programs' compulsory advertising fees violate farmers' First Amendment right not to speak.

"He's very aggressive, let's put it that way," said Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League and a supporter of agricultural marketing orders. "His tone and mannerism are not those of a Perry Mason."

Dig deeper, and Leighton's doggedness on Richard Horn's behalf comes into focus.

Horn was a Fresno-based DEA agent when Leighton ran the region's organized crime drug task force. They handled what Leighton termed "a lot of huge drug cases," serving warrants in Miami and Los Angeles. They stayed in touch when Horn eventually became the DEA's chief agent in Burma.

"He was just a hard-nosed bulldog, a great agent," Leighton said. "He never gave up."

But Horn, an ambitious man who some considered a bit of a cowboy, ran afoul of State Department officials. He says the Burmese government was more cooperative than State Department officials wanted to admit. They retorted, in one memo, that Horn seemed to be under a "strain." Horn says he was illegally eavesdropped on.

Horn ultimately lost his Burma job in September 1993. He has since retired from the DEA and could not be reached to comment.

His complaints about Franklin Huddle of the State Department and Arthur Brown of the CIA prompted two inspector general reports. The government has sought to keep the reports secret for many years, crimping Leighton's courtroom arguments.

"The disclosure of covert CIA activities on foreign soil could embarrass the host government, creating diplomatic tensions between that country and the United States," Justice Department attorneys argued in a February 2000 court filing.

Former CIA Director George Tenet added that disclosure would "cause serious damage to the national security." Tenet's complete explanation was itself kept secret -- even from Leighton.

Horn's attorneys, Tenet explained, "lack the requisite need for access."

Such secrecy has repeatedly hindered Leighton. For instance, he cannot retain in his Clovis office certain DEA documents. Instead, he must periodically visit a "secure room" at the DEA's Fresno office.

Now, with the case at least partially public, Leighton is preparing for the next round of legal briefings. A reasonable settlement at this point, he said, could reach millions of dollars.

"You know and I know that this case is going to end up in a tragic ending if there is not a settlement," Lamberth warned Justice Department attorneys in a May hearing.

He added, "You are running up all kinds of bills ... and I don't know to what end."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/washington/story/72437.html

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Nazi Monster Recruited by MI6 to Spy for Britain

By Tony Rennell
24th July 2009

Friedrich Buchardt was a clever man, an intellectual and a polymath equally at home practising law or writing papers on economics and geography.

He was also a cold-blooded killer of monstrous proportions.

In Nazi Germany, he put his great brain to twisted issues of race and, in particular, the distribution of Jewish communities in the areas to the east of the Reich - Poland and Russia.

When Hitler's armies then invaded these lands, he came up with a scale for measuring the 'German-ness' of the overrun people on a scale from one to five.

But the handsome, thirty-something academic was a soldier as well as a scholar. He was a lieutenant in the Schutzstaffel, the feared SS, and in that evil organisation no one was allowed to hide in the back office.

Heinrich Himmler, the SS leader, insisted on what was called 'blood experience' for all his men. The ideology had to be blended with practice. And the practice was extermination, at which Buchardt turned out to be rather a dab and deadly hand.

In the Polish towns of Lublin and Lodz, he crossed the line from categorising ethnic types to killing them and from studying population control to carrying it out.

The SS hierarchy was impressed.

Here was a man who would go far. He impressed further by supervising the deportation of 80,000 Jews and gipsies to the Chelmno extermination camp.

Promoted to major, he commanded a notorious death squad that came in behind the front line of Nazi military conquests in the Soviet Union to round up and slaughter tens of thousands of Jews and communists.

Einsatzgruppen (death squads) like his killed mercilessly and in large numbers, herding men, women and children from villages and towns to the edge of pits and shooting them in the back of the neck one by one or mowing them down with machine-guns. They murdered without compunction on a medieval scale.

For all these activities, Buchardt, a lieutenant-colonel by now, deserved to be condemned as a war criminal and could - almost certainly should - have shared the fate of SS commanders who were hanged or shot at the end of the war.

Instead - as a new book published next week reveals - this unsavoury and unspeakable man with the blood of thousands on his hands was not only allowed to live but was given a job and a future. He was hired as a spy - by, of all people, Britain's MI6.

Buchardt was by no means the only Nazi who came out of the war not paying for his crimes but profiting from them. But his newly discovered story will fuel the concerns of many people who suspect that, in the post-war era, not enough effort was put into bringing the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice.

Many escaped to new lives in faraway places such as South America, and only a handful - such as Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Final Solution, Klaus Barbie, the butcher of Lyons, and Franz Stangl, the commandant of two death camps - were ever brought back and convicted.

Josef Mengele, the doctor at Auschwitz who selected victims for the gas chambers and performed genetic experiments on children, was never apprehended, even though his number was in the Buenos Aires phone book.

Others, particularly those lower down the pecking order, concealed their identities and, in the chaos of post-war Germany, slipped back undetected into ordinary lives.

But, extraordinary as it sounds, Buchardt, despite being in Allied hands and despite his crimes being known, was not only saved from the gallows but given a special mission on behalf of His Britannic Majesty.

What made him useful to the British was the very knowledge that had also been his strong point in the SS. He was an expert on the Soviet Union and all those eastern lands now under the Soviet heel. He had run spy networks there and recruited agents and collaborators from the local populations.

Captured and under investigation in a British PoW camp, he produced a document he entitled 'The Handling of the Russian Problem during the Period of the Nazi Regime in Germany' and showed it to his captors.

It was a complete rundown of his espionage operations in Eastern Europe. For MI6, scrambling to make the sudden switch of its intelligence-gathering operations from Hitler's Germany to Stalin's communist regimes, this was gold dust.

MI6 made it the blueprint for its own spying activities behind the Iron Curtain.

What precisely Buchardt got up to in his new role remains shrouded in mystery. Perhaps his new masters were too ashamed to record anything of his activities in documents. But historian Guy Walters - whose book, Hunting Evil, reveals MI6's pact with Buchardt - concludes that 'his knowledge of the Baltic states, Poland and Russia, as well as his numerous anti-communist Russian contacts, would have proved immensely useful'.

The association was not a long one. After two years, MI6 dropped Buchardt for reasons unknown and it seems he transferred his services to the Americans.

What they used him for Walters has also been unable to establish with any certainty, but it must have been considered very important. His links to the Central Intelligence Agency were enough to stymie a proposed war crimes investigation into him by the West German authorities.

He was left to live out most of his days in the university city of Heidelberg - also, and perhaps significantly, the headquarters of American forces in Europe. He died in 1982, aged 73, never having had to face up to the crimes he committed on that murderous trail into Russia four decades earlier.

Buchardt was not unique but one of a number of Nazi killers who enjoyed similar protection from the Allies after the war.

As a Gestapo officer, Horst Kopkow had been responsible for the execution in prison and concentration camps of some 300 British agents sent behind the lines by the Special Operations Executive, including the celebrated Violette Szabo, immortalised in the film Carve Her Name With Pride.

But it wasn't just British spying operations and underground activities that Kopkow had known about. He had also gathered copious information about Soviet spy rings in Germany and, when he fell into British hands, he saved himself by revealing the lot.

As he gave MI6 inside information and his interrogators could barely believe their ears, war crimes investigators from other agencies were kept away. Even SOE, whom he had so badly wronged, was not allowed to get its hands on him.

Finally, in 1948, these war crimes groups were informed that Kopkow had died from pneumonia while still in custody and had been buried alongside other German PoWs in a military cemetery. A death certificate was produced.

His death was a fake, cobbled together by the secret service. He returned to Germany under a false name and even went back to his family under the guise of a long-lost relative called 'Uncle Peter', a cover story he and his wife kept up by sleeping in separate beds.

Walters believes Kopkow remained an agent for the British, organising a network of contacts behind the Iron Curtain for the next eight years. He died - for real this time - in 1996.

Another war criminal given a new name with MI6 help was Viktors Arajs, head of a special unit that slaughtered Jews in Latvia and partisans in Russia. The body count amassed by him and his commandos between 1941 and 1944 may well have been 100,000. Yet, after several years as a prisoner, he was released by the British in 1949 and, under the name of Viktor Zeibots, was given a job as a driver for the British military authorities in West Germany. He claimed that the intelligence services tried to recruit him to undertake spying missions in Soviet-controlled Latvia.

His past eventually caught up with him. In 1979 he was brought to justice in Frankfurt and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in captivity in 1988.

Of all these monsters with whom Western agencies did deals after-World War II, it is Buchardt that Walters thinks the worst. He was the most murderous because he not only supervised killings, 'but also helped to construct the flawed academic easel upon which the Nazis mounted their picture of racial superiority, which led to genocide'.

Many people might be tempted to see the use of such monsters as evidence of the moral bankruptcy of MI6 and the CIA. Walters, however, suspects that the men running these organisations took little pleasure in hiring someone of such obvious evil and culpability.

'Today, it is easy to be moralistic about such activity,' he says, 'but this is to ignore the reality of espionage work and the scale of the perceived risk that the Allies faced from the Soviets.'

If Nazi criminals had access to information behind the Iron Curtain, he argues, it was reasonable for dirty deals to be done in the cause of the greater goods of democracy and liberalism.

The common agreement in that post-war era was that a man with information and contacts was more valuable working on your side and against your mutual enemy, the Soviet Union, than dangling from a rope. The Russians were themselves using ex-SS men to infiltrate Western intelligence agencies.All this double-dealing was a far cry from the pledge given by the Allies a year-and-a-half before the war ended that war criminals would be 'pursued to the uttermost ends of the earth'.

In reality, once the top Nazis had been dealt with at Nuremberg, the drive to track down all those guilty of atrocities slowed to a crawl.

The problem was the realisation that the evil of Nazism had seeped so deeply into German society. The sheer volume of criminality now emerging was of tidal wave proportions. Moreover, the investigation teams were hamstrung by an acute lack of resources.

The British Army's investigation unit had only 12 officers - less than half its scheduled complement - and its search team, whose job was to find the culprits, just six.

In November 1946, the British government - believing the public was in favour of 'wiping the slate clean' - decided to stop hunting for any more Nazis and the following year 2,000 suspects for whom there was insufficient evidence or where the crimes were deemed relatively trivial were let off.

By 1948, the British held fewer than 200 suspects. That August, the whole investigation was abandoned and the war crimes unit disbanded.

For one of its members, Sergeant Greville Janner - later the Labour peer Lord Janner - this was shocking.

'We still had 10,000 criminals, murderers and concentration camp guards on our books - and the authorities disbanded it because they wanted to concentrate on the Russians. It was just filthy politics.'

Hunting Evil by Guy Walters (Bantam Press, £18.99).

Apollo 11 Anniversary: "There could have been no man on the moon, Russian or American, without Nazi know-how"

Excerpt from "Many moons ago," by Michael Handelzalts, www.haaretz.com:

... It is [no] coincidence that the technology for the ambitious space projects on both the Russian and American sides originated in Nazi Germany. The moving force behind the U.S. enterprise was Wernher von Braun, the Nazi party member and high-ranking SS officer who was at least fully aware of, if not directly responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 slave laborers manufacturing his invention, the V-2 rocket, for the purpose of destroying London.

In contrast, Sergei Korolev, the chief visionary on the Russian side, who remained anonymous until after his death in 1966, was denounced in 1939 by a fellow scientist, and spent the war years in labor camps in Kolyma and as a prisoner working in the Tupolev airplane factory. When the war was over, he was entrusted (thanks to the recommendation of the colleague who had denounced him) with deciphering the blueprints and remains of V-2 rockets in production, with the help of former associates of Von Braun who had not been spirited off by the Americans.

Thus, there could have been no man on the moon, Russian or American, without Nazi know-how.

It is also worth remembering that both Von Braun and Korolev, while kowtowing to their new political masters and providing scientific technology with military applications (i.e., ballistic missiles that could carry conventional or nuclear warheads, satellites that could be used for reconnaissance), were also consumed by a purer scientific vision: of sending man into space.

In one respect, this was yet another instance of scientists enlisting in an effort that would inevitably lead to mass destruction, while deluding themselves that it was a temporary and necessary evil, and part of an otherwise noble quest for knowledge and enlightenment (see: the A-bomb dropped on Japan). They were similarly unaware of being mere tools in politicians' hands, to be chewed on, devoured and spat out at some later time. ...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1102466.html

Letter: How Sun Myung Moon Took Over the University of Bridgeport

Connecticut Post
http://www.connpost.com/ci_12877455?source=most_emailed
07/20/2009

Editor:

Does the Connecticut Post have "Moon fever"?

No, I'm not referring to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing on its front page, but Sunday's editorial titled "Mayor's disdain of UB undeserved."

Deserved or not, telling Mayor Bill Finch to "stifle" his remarks in regards to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's association with the University of Bridgeport is sheer lunacy for a newspaper whose daily operation is based on those same unabridged First Amendment rights.

Finch is certainly "entitled to his personal opinion and to harbor whatever beliefs he wants," but the facts are that UB made a Faustian bargain with the Professors World Peace Academy, which bailed out the university in return for a controlling interest of its board of trustees.

More than an "off-shoot of the Unification Church," the PWPA has been described by The New York Times as "the academic arm" of that church, revealing a clear connection between Moon and UB through a front organization that receives most of its funding from the UC.

As for Finch's accusation of criminal activity, Moon was convicted for income tax evasion and conspiracy to commit fraud in 1984; he served one year at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury.

Regardless of the recent growth of UB, Finch is still entitled to his beliefs, especially when they're based in reality.

Joseph C. DeCaro
Stratford

Count Adrian de Suiza worked for Spanish ruler Franco, before fleeing to West Palm Beach

"The Count opens a leather-bound scrapbook full of snapshots and hand-written greetings from friends, visitors and fellow party-goers. ... "Ah, here is my friend Adnan," he says. The Count, looking like a '70s-era De Niro, is cheek-to-cheek in one picture with Adnan Khashoggi, whose name is always followed in news stories by "international arms merchant" and sometimes by "world's richest man." (To show this is no chance photo-op, The Count reaches into another file and retrieves other photos of the pair and a stack of letters and Christmas cards the two have exchanged over the years.) ... "

Story:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/07/11/0711Suizaprofile.html

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Nazi Sympathizer David Irving Speaks in Downtown Boise

A dozen locals show up in basement for revisionist book talk

David Irving on Eighth Street in Boise, having a beer before his show.

by Nathaniel Hoffman
Boise Weekly
7-23-09

When a cult figure of the neo-Nazi movement comes to this town, it is not so hard to track him down. David Irving, who, for at least 50 years, has written sympathetic and revisionist books about Hitler and the Nazis, announced months ago on his Web site that he would arrive in Boise on Wednesday, July 15, as part of a 17-city Western and Midwestern book tour. ...

But he never said where he'd be speaking, for fear of protesters showing up and disrupting the thing.

Continued: http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/nazi-sympathizer-david-irving-speaks-in-downtown-boise/Content?oid=1114835

Flashback: Ex-Aide Calls CIA Under Casey and Gates Corrupt and Slanted

The more things change ... see: "Letter: The CIA's History of 'Creating' Intelligence"

By Paul F. Horvitz
NYT
October 2, 1991

A former top Central Intelligence Agency analyst testified Tuesday that in the 1980s the CIA was a politicized cauldron in which estimates were slanted and false information was presented to the White House to match the policy objectives of the agency's director, William J. Casey.

Story: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:VEVAjnwVWAkJ:www.nytimes.com/1991/10/02/news/02iht-cia_.html+henry+louis+gates+and+the+cia&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

"America was the Source of the Cyber-Attack"

" ... Global Digital Broadcast ... had 'discounted it as coming from a North Korean Government site,' suggesting the source of the attack was based in America. ... "

July 15, 2009

Brighton company involved in cyber attack on US and South Korea, investigators claim
Richard Lloyd Parry


The master computer which controlled last week’s massive cyber attack on websites in the US and South Korea is in Britain, Asian computer security investigators claim.

The attack, which paralysed the websites of South Korean and United States government agencies, banks and businesses over the course of a week, was first blamed on communist North Korea. But having traced the attack back via proxy computers used in the attack, a security company in Vietnam has identified a server belonging to Global Digital Broadcast, a Brighton-based internet television company as the source of the attacks.

The analysis, by a Vietnamese company, Bach Khoa Internetwork Security (BKIS), was carried out at the request of the South Korean government. Yesterday, South Korea emphasised that it was not clear whether Global Digital Broadcast was the origin of the attacks or whether it was also being manipulated by a master computer.

"The [Brighton] server appears to have controlled compromised handler servers,” Park Cheol Soon of South Korea’s communications commission. told Agence France Presse. “However, it needs more investigation to confirm whether this server was the final attacker server or not.”

Global Digital Broadcast wrote on its website that it was aware of the issue and had “treated it with utmost severity” but had “discounted it as coming from a North Korean Government site” suggesting the source of the attack was based in America.

A Serious Organised Crime Agency spokesman said: “We are involved, and are aware from the information and are assisting with the information.

“We have spoken to the company involved. But this this is not our investigation, we’re just dealing with the company on the UK side.” ...

Continued: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6715109.ece

Texas: Protesters Rally Over Dragging Death

July 21, 2009

State police in riot gear rushed a downtown street in Paris to break up a standoff between hundreds of protesters who exchanged screams of “Black power!” and “White power!” Two white men, one carrying a Nazi flag, were arrested on a misdemeanor charge of suspicion of disorderly conduct. It was the third courthouse protest over the death of Brandon McClelland, 24, whose body was found Sept. 16 after he was run over by a vehicle and dragged beneath it. A prosecutor cited a lack of evidence in dropping murder charges last month against two white men arrested in his death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/us/22brfs-PROTESTERSRA_BRF.html

Berlusconi Says ‘I’m no Saint’ in Response to Tapes With Escort

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aE8CAh_P0GeM

By Steve Scherer

July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he’s “no saint” after an Italian magazine released more tapes of what it said were conversations between Italy’s leader and a high-priced call girl. I news magazine yesterday published for a second day tapes purporting to show Berlusconi talking with Patrizia D’Addario, who claims to have been paid to attend parties with the premier. The tapes appear to describe details of her spending the night with Berlusconi at his Rome residence.

“I’m no saint,” Berlusconi, 72, said in a speech in the northern city of Brescia. “You all know that.” A month ago, Berlusconi told a news conference in the earthquake stricken region of Abruzzo in response to news reports about his ties to other women that “Italians like me the way I am.”

Previously, Berlusconi said he didn’t recall meeting D’Addario and his lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said earlier this week the tapes were “pure fabrication.” ...
.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

300 Nazis Still Go Free in America

By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
http://www.cjp.org/page.aspx?id=203444
NY Post

Three-hundred Nazis are living in plain sight in the United States, according to the world's preeminent Nazi-hunting organization.

Although the case against John Demjanjuk, the former Ohio auto worker formally charged with war crimes in Germany last week, is being called the last great Nazi war-crimes trial, Efraim Zuroff told The Post there are hundreds more suspects to be brought to justice.

"We don't have much longer," said Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel. "We have to go after them or they will be too sick to bring to trial."

Many of the Nazis still here are elderly men who worked and raised families in the United States and whose neighbors were unaware of their past, including:

* Johann Leprich, a retired tool-and-die worker from Michigan, who was a "Death Head" guard at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, where inmates were used as slave laborers in a quarry and tortured and killed by gassing, hanging and electric shock.

* Mykola Wasylyk of upstate Ellenville, who ran a Catskills bungalow colony renting cabins to Jewish visitors. He served as a perimeter guard at the Trawniki labor camp in Poland. He proclaimed in a 2002 letter to the US attorney that he was forced into Nazi service and that he had been "an exemplary and law-abiding citizen" for the last 54 years.

* Jakiw Palij of Queens, who quietly tends his flower garden every morning outside his Jackson Heights home. He was a guard at Trawniki and found to have helped keep prisoners from escaping the camp where 6,000 people were shot to death in one of the largest single massacres of the Holocaust.

* Elfriede Rinkel, who lived such a seemingly ordinary life as a San Francisco furrier that her Jewish husband knew nothing about her past. Rinkel worked as a guard at the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp for women in Germany, where guards were known for forcing malnourished inmates to march to slave-labor sites daily and then kept in check by attack dogs.

The number of Nazis who came to the United States after World War II has been estimated from a few hundred to several thousand. Hundreds of thousands of Nazis are thought to have survived the war, many of them staying in the countries where they committed their crimes.

Since 1979, 107 Nazis have been prosecuted in the United States and at least 60 have been deported. Eleven suspected Nazis are now being prosecuted, and another 30 are under investigation.

Such investigations can take years.

Demjanjuk was stripped of his US citizenship in 1981, when he was believed to be "Ivan the Terrible," a guard at Poland's Treblinka death camp. He was sentenced to death in Israel, but that country's Supreme Court threw out the case, saying he was the wrong man.

US prosecutors began a new case in 1999, accusing Demjanjuk of working as a guard at a different Polish camp. He was finally deported to Germany in May.

"These are the ultimate cold cases," said Eli Rosenbaum, the director of the US Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations, which hunts Nazis and other human-rights abusers.

Cooperating witnesses were either murdered by the Nazis or have since died, and most of the criminals were not known by name to their victims, Rosenbaum said.

"The Nazis destroyed much of the incriminating documentation in the closing months of the war when they realized that an Allied victory was imminent, [and] the bulk of the surviving documentation is scattered in archives in many countries and remains poorly indexed," he said.

The DOJ usually snares Nazis on immigration violations, contending they lied about their past when they entered the United States, and by proving their underlying criminal conduct during the war.

Five Nazis brought to justice and stripped of their US citizenship are stuck in a deportation limbo with no countries agreeing to take them.

Among them is Palij, 85, whose citizenship was revoked in 2003. Prosecutors found that he lied when immigrating to the United States in 1949.

Germany, Poland and Ukraine have all refused to accept him.

Wasylyk is also awaiting deportation after four countries refused to take him.

Many of the Nazis have been found by governmental officials poring over immigration documents and comparing them with a list of 70,000 war criminals culled from countries around the world. The collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989 brought more information to light.

In Israel, Zuroff spends much of his time persuading countries in Europe, the former Soviet Union and Australia to prosecute Nazis.

While Israel was the site of probably the most important Nazi war-crime trial, that of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, the country has recently shied away from accepting other Nazis prosecuted on immigration issues in the United States.

Zuroff said in order to try these Nazis in Israel, a case would have to be brought on criminal charges, which would be difficult to prove since so much time has elapsed.

Memorial Plaque for the Victims of IG Farben

Horst Wilhelm (left) and Manfred Demmer of the Leverkusen Cultural Association unveil the plaque. Photo: Bettina Without concern

By Peter Kleinert
http://www.nrhz.de/flyer/beitrag.php?id=13965

[TRANSLATION]

On Saturday, at a ceremony on the grounds of the Leverkusen Cultural Association, a commemorative plate was unveiled with the inscription: "1933 - 1945 IG Farben of economic crimes against the public." The plaque will be sent to the victims of IG Farben AG, in memory that a group of companies - BASF, Hoechst and Bayer - on the initiative of Bayer Board Chairman Carl Duisberg, arose and from 1926 to 1945 their headquarters was in Leverkusen. Since the "unbundling," by decision by the Allied Control Council, there is once again an IG Farben subsidiary in Leverkusen, Bayer AG.

In a brief speech at the inauguration, Manfred Demmer, vice president of the Cultural Association Leverkusen eV and a board member of the National Federation of VVN-antifascists NRW, discussed the history of IG and the Bayer Group, as well. Afterwards, participants toured a small exhibition and were given literature to enhance their knowledge of IG Farben.

"Entanglement in the Third Reich"

Bayer's own postings on the Internet (data/facts 2008/2009) address the integration of IG Farben in fascist policy: "As the most powerful chemical company in Germany, IG Farben was also instrumental in the Third Reich." The "entanglements" are confirmed by a display that provides concrete examples. One of them was IG Farben-worker Frieda Hansel, believed to be a Jew, who died on 26 February 1943 in the Birkenau women's camp. Other panels provide information on wages at IG Farben in Leverkusen, also on forced labor in the IG Farben plants in Leverkusen, among other topics.

Rethinking the city of Leverkusen?

The visitors, including active anti-fascists, such as Wolfgang Stückl, chairman of the Leverkusen hospital, were impressed by a wealth of hitherto, little-known information in the Bayer/IG Farben history. On a positive note, it was observed that the city is changing and was very receptive to invitations to the memorial's unveiling ...

Mayo and Bolivia: The Fascist Link

" ... several of those who worked, and may still work as ‘security’ at the Shell compound, are high ranking members of fascist organisations. One such man, Tibor Rozsa, was a commander of the Szekler Legion, a paramilitary fascist group in Romania. ... "

by Mark Malone
Workers Solidarity #110 (Ireland)
July 18 2009

For the last eight years the local communities in Rossport and Glengad, County Mayo have been resisting petro-chemical giant Shell’s plans for a high-pressure gas pipeline from the offshore gas fields to an online refinery at Bellanaboy. The project is a significant health and safety risk in the medium term, as admitted by Shell's own engineers at a recent local forum examining the project. It already has caused high levels of aluminum pollution of the local water supply.

However, there is another clear danger to the local community above and beyond the effects of the pipeline and refinery. It is the direct and physical risk of harm from the privatised “security” force hired by Shell to quell effective opposition by campaigners. That company is Integrated Risk Management Services (IRMS), with a head office in Naas, County Kildare.

IRMS and its owners Terry Downes and James Farrell are on very good terms with the Fianna Fail Party, as they did the security for the “Champaign Tent” at the Galway Races. They also have many state contracts for events such as the recent Africa Day celebration in Dublin. So these men get a lot of our taxes directly into their pockets.

You have to wonder what the organisers of Africa Day make of the fact that IRMS employees have links with racist and fascist groups. Recently it has been discovered that several of those who worked, and may still work as ‘security’ at the Shell compound, are high ranking members of fascist organisations. One such man, Tibor Rozsa, was a commander of the Szekler Legion, a paramilitary fascist group in Romania.

Rozsa was one of three people shot dead earlier this year by the Bolivian government in what seems to have been a plot to start a civil war in the country. Irish man Michael Dwyer was one off those killed, and had worked with Rozsa at Shell’s compound in Mayo with IRMS. It’s worth noting that less that a year before the shootings, the Bolivian government nationalised a pipeline ‘owned’ by Shell. IRMS deny any direct involvement in the plot, but major questions remain.

How can a company that has many security contracts from the Irish State get away with hiring fascist thugs? How is it that these fascists can openly sell badges on the internet ‘celebrating’ the fact that they are involved in trampling over a local community and international campaign, and regularly assaulting local community activists or filming families and children when they are on the beach.

And just why was it that as soon as news broke of the deaths of former IRMS employees, who worked at the Shell compound in Mayo, that IRMS suddenly pulled the plug on their own website?

Maybe we should ask Terry Downes and James Farrell. They are the owners of, and make profits from, IRMS. As such have no interest in seeing a resolution to the conflict in west Mayo. The longer it drags out the more money it is for Terry and James.

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090718230545636

Monday, July 20, 2009

AG Eric Holder & Chiquita, Covington, Negroponte, Bolton, Colombian Death Squads

The Holder-Chiquita Connection
http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff07172009.html

... Given Chiquita’s underhanded record in Central America and Colombia it’s not a surprise that the company later sought to ally itself with COHEP in Honduras. In addition to lobbying business associations in Honduras however Chiquita also cultivated relationships with high powered law firms in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Chiquita has paid out $70,000 in lobbying fees to Covington and Burling over the past three years.

Covington is a powerful law firm which advises multinational corporations. Eric Holder, the current Attorney General, a co-chair of the Obama campaign and former Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton was up until recently a partner at the firm. At Covington, Holder defended Chiquita as lead counsel in its case with the Justice Department. From his perch at the elegant new Covington headquarters located near the New York Times building in Manhattan, Holder prepped Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita’s CEO, for an interview with 60 Minutes dealing with Colombian death squads.

Holder had the fruit company plead guilty to one count of “engaging in transactions with a specially designated global terrorist organization.” But the lawyer, who was taking in a hefty salary at Covington to the tune of more than $2 million, brokered a sweetheart deal in which Chiquita only paid a $25 million fine over five years. Outrageously however, not one of the six company officials who approved the payments received any jail time.

The Curious Case of Covington

Look a little deeper and you’ll find that not only does Covington represent Chiquita but also serves as a kind of nexus for the political right intent on pushing a hawkish foreign policy in Latin America. Covington has pursued an important strategic alliance with Kissinger (of Chile, 1973 fame) and McLarty Associates (yes, the same Mack McLarty from Clinton-time), a well known international consulting and strategic advisory firm.

From 1974 to 1981 John Bolton served as an associate at Covington. As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under George Bush, Bolton was a fierce critic of leftists in Latin America such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. Furthermore, just recently John Negroponte became Covington’s Vice Chairman. Negroponte is a former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence and U.S. Representative to the United Nations.

As U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, Negroponte played a significant role in assisting the U.S.-backed Contra rebels intent on overthrowing the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Human rights groups have criticized Negroponte for ignoring human rights abuses committed by Honduran death squads which were funded and partially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, when Negroponte served as ambassador his building in Tegucigalpa became one of the largest nerve centers of the CIA in Latin America with a tenfold increase in personnel.

While there’s no evidence linking Chiquita to the recent coup in Honduras, there’s enough of a confluence of suspicious characters and political heavyweights here to warrant further investigation. From COHEP to Covington to Holder to Negroponte to McLarty, Chiquita has sought out friends in high places, friends who had no love for the progressive labor policies of the Zelaya regime in Tegucigalpa. ...

http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff07172009.html
****
"Eventually, though, with Holder’s assistance Chiquita and the Justice Department came to an agreement in which the fruit company would pay a $25 million fine - the price of the company’s sale of Banadex, its Colombian subsidiary - for having made payments to a foreign terrorist organization. The fine’s proceeds went to the U.S. Treasury. ... "

http://www.cipcol.org/?p=703
Dec 02

Eric Holder and Chiquita

After President-Elect Obama revealed that Eric Holder would be his choice for attorney-general, several observers raised questions about the nominee’s role as a private lawyer defending Chiquita Brands, the U.S. fruit company. Holder helped Chiquita negotiate a plea agreement with the Justice Department for the years of payoffs that the company made to paramilitary groups in a part of Colombia where the right-wing militias massacred hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civilians.

Hofstra University’s Mario Murillo, writing for CounterPunch: “not one Chiquita official involved in the illegal transactions was forced to serve time for a crime that others have paid dearly for, mainly because they did not have the kind of legal backing that Holder’s team provided. … If the Obama Administration is seriously concerned about impunity and human rights in Colombia, Holder should probably step out of the way immediately.”

Dan Kovalik of the U.S. Steelworkers’ Union, writing in the Huffington Post: “Eric Holder would have a troubling conflict of interest in carrying out this work in light of his current work as defense lawyer for Chiquita Brands international. … Holder himself, using his influence as former deputy attorney general under the Clinton Administration, helped to negotiate Chiquita’s sweeheart deal with the Justice Department in the criminal case against Chiquita.”

Jason Glaser, writing in the Guardian: “Does Holder represent the change we need and the change we were promised? It is time that someone who chooses to represent and serve human beings over corporations holds the position of attorney general.”


The story here is that after the Clinton administration drew to a close Holder, a former Clinton assistant attorney-general, went into private practice at the Covington and Burling law firm, where his clients included Chiquita. In 2003, Holder led the legal team that advised the fruit company to admit to the U.S. Justice Department that it had been making payments to the murderous United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) since 1997 - a relationship that started out as “protection” money but went on way too long. The payments, which finally stopped in 2004, totaled about US$1.7 million to a group that, as of September 10, 2001, was on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Oddly, as the Washington Post has reported, despite the terrorism link Holder and Chiquita at first had difficulty even getting a response out of Assistant Attorney-General Michael Chertoff, who would later go on to be the Bush administration’s Homeland Security secretary.

Eventually, though, with Holder’s assistance Chiquita and the Justice Department came to an agreement in which the fruit company would pay a $25 million fine - the price of the company’s sale of Banadex, its Colombian subsidiary - for having made payments to a foreign terrorist organization. The fine’s proceeds went to the U.S. Treasury.

There is a widespread perception that Chiquita’s punishment was quite lenient given the link with a terrorist group responsible for mass murder. Notably, the Justice Department indictment makes no mention of a potentially more serious charge, documented in a 2003 OAS investigation: that Chiquita’s Colombian subsidiary helped run weapons and ammunition from Nicaragua to the AUC.

How can we characterize the attorney-general-designate’s role? On one hand, Holder’s actions were commendable. Upon discovering that his client had broken the law, he advised it to go to the U.S. authorities. Notably, no other fruit company operating in northwestern Colombia’s conflictive Urabá region - and there are several - has come forward to admit to paying off armed groups. (It seems absurd that Chiquita would be the only one, and indeed demobilizing paramilitary leaders - including Salvatore Mancuso in a May 2008 60 Minutes interview - have alleged that they took payments from other companies in Urabá.)

Writing for Salon, Glenn Greenwald meanwhile makes the point that Holder should not be criticized for defending for a client, since all accused people have the right to defense counsel.

Attempts to criticize a lawyer for representing unsavory or even evil clients are inherently illegitimate and wrong — period. Anybody who believes in core liberties should want even the most culpable parties to have zealous representation before the Government can impose punishments or other sanctions. Lawyers who defend even the worst parties are performing a vital service for our justice system. Holder is no more tainted by his defense of Chiquita than lawyers who defend accused terrorists at Guantanamo are tainted by that.

This is true, and Holder’s defense of Chiquita should not disqualify him from serving as the Obama administration’s attorney-general.

Nonetheless, there are questions about Holder’s role that the Senate Judiciary Committee should explore before deciding on his nomination.

•Did Holder benefit from his contacts with former colleagues at the Justice Department in a way that allowed him to achieve a more lenient plea agreement than would have been possible for a less well-connected attorney?

•What role has Holder played in defending Chiquita from a class-action lawsuit filed in 2007 by 173 victims of paramilitary violence in the Urabá region? Has he advised his client to refuse any and all demands for restitution or reparations to victims? If so, how did he justify this position?

•In general, does Holder personally believe that U.S. corporations that do direct or indirect harm to citizens of a foreign country need not be held accountable to those citizens?


It will be difficult to get a definitive answer to any of these questions, and in fact the answer to all of them may be “no.”

Still, the U.S. Justice Department is likely to be dealing with Colombian paramilitary groups in several contexts, including possible future actions against U.S. corporations that may have aided them, and of course the criminal cases against fifteen extradited paramilitary leaders in U.S. custody since May of this year.

In private practice, Holder sought to downplay the severity of his client’s funding of Colombia’s paramilitaries and perhaps sought to prevent or minimize reparations to victims. As attorney-general, however, Holder can do great harm to U.S. credibility in Colombia and Latin America if he is perceived to be throwing obstacles in the way of the paramilitaries’ victims’ rights to truth and reparations. Because of his past work with Chiquita, his Justice Department’s actions with regard to future paramilitary cases will deserve extremely close scrutiny.

http://www.cipcol.org/?p=703