Cheney: Won't Turn Over Energy List -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday he will not give congressional investigators a list of business leaders he met with while formulating the administration's energy policy. -- Cheney said providing such a list would harm his ability to receive advice in the future — a stand that could prompt a congressional lawsuit seeking to force disclosure.
"The US has removed Afghanistan from its proscribed list of
major drug-producing countries despite the fact that the UN says
this year's poppy harvest is likely to produce more than 3000
tonnes of raw opium, the basic ingredient of heroin. President
George W Bush admitted to Congress that the country had 'failed
demonstrably to make substantial counter-narcotics efforts over
the last 12 months', but waived a ban on economic assistance
because it was 'vital to the national interests of the US', to
bolster the fledgling regime in Kabul... In 1999, the country
produced almost three-quarters of the world's heroin and 90% of
the drug sold on the streets of Europe. The hardline Taliban
regime banned poppy cultivation in 2000, but took no action to
seize existing stockpiles or to disrupt the movement of supplies
across traditional trafficking routes... Independent warlords
have replaced the Taliban in raking off a share of the take from
the trade." So reports the Herald of Glasgow.
Creator of West Wing Says Media Is Shamelessly Inflating Bush's Image
As Aaron Sorkin points out, Bush did not go to sleep as a schmuck
on Sept. 11 and on Sept. 12 "wake up as Teddy
Roosevelt." But that's what the media would have us believe.
Take a look at NBC's look at a day in the life of the Presidency:
"The White House pumped up the President's schedule to show
him being much busier and more engaged than he is," says
Sorkin, "and Tom Brokaw let it happen—the show was a
valentine to Bush. That illusion may be what we need right now,
but the truth is we're simply pretending to believe that Bush
exhibited unspeakable courage at the World Series by throwing out
the first pitch at Yankee Stadium, or that he, by God, showed
those terrorists by going to Salt Lake City and jumbling the first
line of the Olympic opening ceremony. The media is waving
pom-poms, and the entire country is being polite." Do
Americans buy it? We bet the results of Election 2002 will, like
2001's nationwide local elections, be a wake up call to the media
and G.W.'s "handlers."
The
Day Ashcroft Censored Freedom of Information
|
 | Howdy folks,
Sometimes I don't know what's real and what's not
real, but I do
know what's interesting, and this is interesting. Does it
mean what they say it means? Don't know:
"Bush Slip Reveals Total 9.11 Complicity -- Says Saw Film of FIRST Attack on WTC: THERE WAS NO SUCH BROADCAST!!"
....John, 12/9/01
|
|
Karl Rove Tries To Cover-up Bush's Bizarre Remarks That He
Saw The FIRST Plane Strike; Both Men's Accounts Conflict
With Earlier Reports!
"Rove told his audience about Bush's sense of command
on Sept. 11, after Rove received word that the first tower
of the World Trade Center had been struck. 'The president
came walking in the room, took one look at the television
set and said, 'We're at war. Get me the vice president. Get
me the director of the FBI.'" Hey, wait a second! This
contradicts what Bush himself told the Florida audience --
that he SAW the FIRST plane strike! What is Rove trying to
pull? He is obviously covering up Bush's comments.. But
Rove's account also contradicts the New York Times report on
9/16: "He arrived (at the school) just before 9. Right
before the event, Karl Rove, one of his most trusted aides,
whispered news of what appeared to be a chilling accident, a
plane crash into the upper floors of the North Tower of the
WTC. Mr. Bush was briefed by phone by Condoleezza
Rice...calling from the White House. He decided to go ahead
with the short school event." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28611-2001Dec11.html
|
Unleashing the CIA?
by William Blum in a ZNet Commentary
The old joke goes that in the waning days of the Second World War,
when Hitler was told of yet another defeat on the battlefield, he
slammed his fist into his desk and declared: "That does it! No
more Mr. Nice Guy!"
We've been treated in the past couple of weeks to one press story
after another about how the Bush administration seeks to
"unleash" the CIA from its restrictions concerning things
like political assassination and dealing with "unsavory"
characters. The nature of the September 11 attack was such, we are
told, that we have to remove our kid gloves and put on
depleted-uranium-tipped brass knuckles.
The policies whose "revisions" are being discussed and
leaked are principally a 25-year ban on the CIA and other agencies
of the government from engaging in assassination, and a policy of
the past five years or so of barring the CIA from employing real
nasty killers and torturers abroad, or at least not without express
approval from high up.
Why are they telling us these tales at this time? Is it to comfort
the American public into believing that the government is holding
nothing back in its campaign of making us more secure? Or can they
actually believe that such announcements will put the fear of Allah
in the Taliban leadership?
The fact is that since Gerald Ford signed a presidential order in
1976, which stated that "No employee of the United States shall
engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination",
the United States has plotted, on more than a dozen occasions, to
administer what the CIA at one time called "suicide
involuntarily administered".
The last known attempt was the firing of missiles into the home of
Slobodan Milosevic in 1999; amongst other attempts during this
period was the arranging by the CIA, in 1985, for a car bomb to kill
one sheikh Fadlallah in Beirut; 80 people were killed in the
explosion, the sheikh not being among their number.
Moreover, in 1984, President Reagan cancelled his own executive
order, which had reiterated Ford's, with a new order which was
actually called by the press a "license to kill" -- a
license to kill anyone deemed a "terrorist". After the
Fadlallah travesty, the license to kill was cancelled, only to be
reinstated a few months later following a hijacking of a TWA plane.
President Bush, the elder, added a new twist in 1989. He issued a
"memorandum of law" that would allow
"accidental" killing if it was a byproduct of legal
action: "A decision by the President to employ overt military
force ... would not constitute assassination if U.S. forces were
employed against the combatant forces of another nation, a guerrilla
force, or a terrorist or other organization whose actions pose a
threat to the security of the United States." In other words,
assassination was okay as long as we said "oops!"
It can thus be seen that all this talk we are being fed of late
about giving the CIA "new" powers to engage in
"targeted killings" is little more than spin, the native
language of politicians.
The same can be said for the public now being told that because of
the terrorist crisis, the CIA is going to be allowed to revert to
the good ol' days when they could cozy up to the most despicable
human rights violators without getting permission from headquarters.
It's hard to imagine that in recent years that even if an Agency
officer felt moved to ask for such permission that it would have
been refused.
A CIA officer could not have set foot in Colombia, Peru, Mexico,
Indonesia, Turkey, Kosovo or Croatia without tripping over an
unindicted war criminal-cum-US ally. As I write this, the Agency is
sleeping with the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan, a band of
torturers, kidnappers and rapists so depraved that the people of
Afghanistan at first welcomed the Taliban as heroes for conquering
these worthies.
To top it all off, we are told that the finest legal minds of the
Justice Department, State Department, Pentagon, etc. have put their
fine minds together and have decided that the new marching orders
are -- will wonders never cease? -- LEGAL!
All these announcements are designed not only to make Americans feel
safer, but to give us a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling that our leaders
are so honorable that they engage in protracted debates and soul
searching before endorsing any policies not fit for our children's
schoolbooks.
William Blum is the author of "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and
CIA Interventions Since World War II" and "Rogue State: A
Guide to the World's Only Superpower".
.... courtesy of ZNET Sustainers program
Learn more about the Sustainer Program: http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
Join the Sustainer Program now: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers
(Top)
Watch Out for Jackboots and Swagger Sticks by Al Martin
Before his speech, on September 20, 2001, George Bush Jr. kissed
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Everyone knows he should
have kissed her because she was the deciding vote in the Florida
ballot issue, which formally brought Bush Jr. into the White House.
Later during the speech, Bush announced the creation of a Cabinet
level position called "Office of Homeland Security."
The Office of Homeland Security will initially be run by former
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. It should be noted that Ridge himself
got in trouble a few years ago for praising the efficiency of the
Third Reich's civilian administration.
Ridge also spoke highly of Mussolini's ability to keep the Italian
trains running on time. Now Ridge will be the guy running the Office
of Homeland Security.
Although it hasn't been made public yet, there is a proposal being
prepared. The Bush administration, however is playing it smart.
They're being cautious by whipping up public support first. Later they
will announce some of the more sinister activities of this agency.
According to an inside source, the "Office of Homeland
Security" will operate three divisions. One will be a
plain-clothes division similar to the FBI, which will be called the
State Security Division (SSD). Ironically SSD is the same acronym as
the former East German Secret Police.
The second division of the Office of Homeland Security will be a
smaller uniformed division, which currently remains nameless. It will
act as a defacto State Political Police.
By the way, Ridge wants the uniforms of this State Political Police
division to be modeled on existing state trooper uniforms - except
done in black. If you've ever seen New Jersey or Pennsylvania State
Police uniforms, they have dark blue pants and lighter blue uniform on
top. They also have those old-fashioned pants that bag out like the
old German or Gestapo pants. They'll have jet-black jackboots, and
black uniforms with lots of gold insignias indicating the Power of the
State. Of course, "State" here is used in the context of the
American Nation State.
The third division of the Office of Homeland Security will be called
the Office of the United States Air Marshals (Air Marshal Services.)
They will have to federalize the new air marshal service because
security on aircraft is currently being provided by state police. The
problem, of course, is that there will be jurisdictional issues. The
actual name of this agency, Office of Homeland Security, is very
reminiscent of 20th century era German/Fascist and Russian/Communist
secret police agencies. In America, "Homeland" is a neuter
word. In German, however, the word is translated as "Vaterland"
(Fatherland), while in Russian, the word is "Rodina"
(Motherland). In both cases, these words can be translated into the
English neuter word -- "homeland." There is no precedent for
the use of this word "homeland" in the United States
Government.
This new agency will also operate "with extralegal
authority." They will then be able to act under suspension of
habeus corpus and under suspension of the right against self-
incrimination, the Fifth Amendment privilege, and also the Fourth
Amendment privilege. That power will be in their charter -- they can
act in an extra-legal authority, in certain cases, where the security
of the "homeland" is "threatened."
The Bush Administration is essentially laying the foundation for a
whole new classification of law. That's why, in his speech, Bush
purposely never used the words "national security." He did
this deliberately so as not to confuse the two.
With this new agency, the seeds are being sown for a new
classification of law that will most likely be called "Homeland
Security Law." Nobody knows what it will be called yet. But this
is obviously what they're doing. Anyone, who knows the Bushes for what
they are, can see that this will be the groundwork for a new, more
powerful, more sinister agency, wherein all sorts of covert activity,
illegal and not, will be extant.
In order to take the concept of "illegal" covert activity
away, they are laying the foundation for a whole new separate body of
law that will be parallel to, but above, the National Security Acts.
The Office of Homeland Security will be a separate agency, not under
any other agency, not even under the Department of Justice. It will be
the most senior agency in the Cabinet. It will probably fall somewhere
between the Department of State and the Department of Defense, or
somewhere between Treasury and Defense. In terms of authority, it will
be called a "Super Agency," which implies it will not be
under anyone. It will act as a coordinating agency, but will be above
the FBI, CIA, NSA, and DIA. This will, of course, create a whole new
set of turf war battles. But no agency head - in this post-WTC
environment - will dare say anything against it because they'd lose
their job.
Ridge will most likely be a political figurehead. He was probably
given this job as political payback for Bush. It hasn't been decided
yet, but one of the names that has been mentioned (and I certainly
hope it doesn't happen) is Barry McCaffrey. If they put that old nazi
in charge, watch out! Meanwhile back in the Redstone Arsenal in
Huntsville, there was a large party of old generals visiting from the
Department of Defense and everybody was laughing. They're all
interested in seeing what corporations will be getting the new
contracts.
With that in mind, the Al Martin Raw website will remain vigilant to
see who gets all the new contracts to create this new agency. These
will be contracts not only for a whole new office building, but the
furniture as well as contracts for electronic components, surveillance
equipment, weapons, etc. Let's see which corporations get these
contracts, how many shares the Bush family trust has in these
corporations, and how much money the so-called "winning"
bidders contribute to right-wing think tanks and institutes.
The Office of Homeland Security will have its own helicopters. Even
the FBI doesn't have its own helicopters, but has to borrow them from
the GSA pool. The Department of Justice doesn't have any of its own
helicopters either. The new Office of Homeland Security helicopters
will be painted a matte black and have digitized red lettering that
says State Security, dark tinted windows, and numerous aerials and
dishes with a big searchlight on the front.
Bell Helicopters is supposed to get the new contract to produce this
new super-surveillance helicopter. Supposedly they'll have the most
sophisticated surveillance electronics ever made. This equipment will
include gear that people don't even know has been invented yet.
It can't happen here? Watch out for jackboots and swagger sticks...
www.almartinraw.com
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, RESOLUTE AGAINST TERRORISM, DESERVES THE TRUTH
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL COMMENTARY
September 28, 2001
The White House is once again resorting to bullying, intimidation and
dissembling to control the news spin and stifle dissent.
As reported on a media watch website, Ari Fleischer warned Americans
that they "need to watch what they say, watch what they do..."
Excerpt from Poynter.org
WH EDITED OUT FLEISCHER'S WATCH-WHAT-YOU-SAY REMARK
In a letter to MediaNews, Phillip Day notes that AP reported that White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Wednesday that Americans
"need to watch what they say..." That line was apparently
edited out of the White House transcript, says Day. Another MediaNews
reader says: "I'm left wondering whatever happened to, 'I may not
agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say
it.'" (MediaNews Letters)
SEVERAL MEDIANEWS READERS note that Fleischer's briefings are archived
at C-SPAN.org. One reader e-mails: "If you listen to the audio of
Fleischer's briefing, you can clearly hear Fleischer say 'need to watch
what they say, watch what they do...' There's no ambiguity whatsoever
about his words. The White House clearly edited the phrase out of the
transcript
intentionally."
Sorry, Ari, BuzzFlash thought this was a democracy, not a dictatorship.
This subtle threat comes in the wake of more unsettling news of White
House efforts to silence anyone who might detract from their packaging
of Bush. Salon.com reports that the White House tried to jawbone
NBC into not allowing Tom Brokaw to run an interview with Bill Clinton
about the crisis (although they didn't formally request them not to, but
they made their opinions known, so to speak). Yes, the White House
thought that it was inappropriate for a former president to be
interviewed on national television. (see http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/27/spin/index.html?x)
We've also learned from various news sources that the White House spin
team's explanations for why Bush didn't return to the White House on
September 11th were misleading to say the least. Apparently, there
were no phone calls threatening Air Force One, and radar tracking
reports show that the hijacked plane that hit the Pentagon was never
headed for the White House. These reports debunk assertions made
by Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer in the wake of a wave of accusations
(among Republicans and Democrats) that Bush dodged returning to
Washington, D.C., on a timely basis.
There may have indeed been national security reasons for Bush not to
immediately return to the nation's Capital, but all the American public
got in the way of explanation was a couple of lies.
Then there is another troubling post-September 11th White House PR
statement. While Bush's staff issued a terse, tepid pro forma statement
of disagreement with Jerry Falwell's Taliban like statement blaming the
terrorist attacks on America's "abandonment of God," Ari
Fleischer went out of his way to blast Bill Maher for making a barbed
political comment. Falwell didn't receive anywhere near the
condemnation Bill Maher did -- and Maher was exercising sharp political
wit; Falwell meant what he said and defiled the loss of nearly 7,000
American lives. (see: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010927/re/television_maher_dc_1.html)
Shall BuzzFlash continue?
In his much-praised speech to a joint session of Congress, Bush's most
moving moment was when he held up a badge of a slain New York Police
officer and said: "And I will carry this. It is the police shield
of a man named George Howard, who died at the World Trade Center trying
to save others. It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud
memorial to her son. It is my reminder of lives ended and a task
that does not end."
The AP reported: "President Bush displayed the badge of a police
officer killed at the World Trade Center during his speech Thursday and
said he'll carry it as a reminder of "lives ended and a task that
does not end." The police shield was given to Bush by the
mother of George Howard, who raced to the trade center to help in the
rescue effort. Bush said Arlene Howard gave him the shield as a
"proud memorial to her son."
Well it turn's out, according at Officer Howard's mom, that she was
"asked" to give the medal to the President: "But when
Port Authority officials asked if she'd give George's shield to George
W. Bush, she couldn't refuse."
(http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/24/vic.bush.police.badge/)
(http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/24/vic.bush.police.badge/)
Now, one could argue that Bush did not actually lie. The heroic
officer's mother did indeed give the badge to Bush, but BuzzFlash is
sure that more than 90% of the Americans watching the remark assumed
that the Mom presented the badge to Bush in a spontaneous gesture.
In short, it is quite possible that the White House planned the whole
poignant moment, and asked the assistance of the Port Authority in
obtaining the badge.
That theory gains credence when added to this information from a Jimmy
Breslin column (http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-bres23.):
"I was going along with George Bush the Younger's speech the other
night, marveling at his sudden command of the moment, even while knowing
that somebody had written the speech for him. Then he did something that
caused my memory to jump. That was the moment when he held out the badge
of George Howard, a Port Authority cop from Hicksville who died in the
catastrophe. The cop's mother, Arlene, had given Bush the badge.
Bush said, "Some will carry memories of a face and a voice
gone forever. And I will carry this. ... It is my reminder of lives that
ended and a task that does not end."
He held Howard's badge up in the palm of his hand.
And I was back on a cool October day in 1988 in Christ the King
High School on Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village and George Bush the
Elder was on the stage holding up officer Edward Byrne's badge. Byrne
had been killed in Jamaica. Byrne's father had given Bush the son's
badge. Bush was running for president against Michael Dukakis.
"Dukakis wouldn't understand the grief of a dead cop's
mother," he said. "This helps define the man I'm running
against. He doesn't understand police. I do."
He used the badge to inflame an auditorium that was crowded with
high school girls, who got up on their seats and shrieked, "Death
Penalty! Death Penalty! Capital Punishment."
It was the most embarrassing afternoon that the Catholics have
had around here.
Now here was George Bush the Younger, like the father before him,
holding up the badge of another dead cop. I would have to bet that Bush
the Younger remembered it and dug up the badge the other night. I didn't
like it."
George Howard was indeed a hero. . All Americans owe him their thanks
and their prayers. BuzzFlash is certainly indebted to such heroes.
But Jimmy Breslin helps us understand that the route by which his badge
came to be part of a national "call to war" speech is filled
with many questions.
So much has been made lately of the need for Americans to unite behind
their President. We all share a common goal of ending terrorism.
But there is legitimate debate about how that goal can be accomplished.
The very fact that this horrific event happened on Bush's watch should
further bolster the right of Americans to be part of a vigorous debate
on how best to ensure the safety of our nation.
Right now, as BuzzFlash has noted, we are all uniting behind the
institution of the presidency. In turn, the man who holds that
office and the people who package him for public consumption need
to unite behind the American people and to honor, respect and cherish
their opinions.
A good place for the Bush Administration to start would be by dropping
the thuggish intimidation efforts aimed at the media and the American
public.
The second step would be for the White House PR machine to start telling
the truth.
Remember the White House Press Secretary's first major communication's
initiative was to spread a lie that the Clinton and Gore staffs had
trashed Air Force One and the White House.
In a time of national mourning and crisis, the American people have been
transformed. We are uniform in our goal to stop terrorism.
It is time for the White House spin machine to transform itself too
and make itself worthy of the great American nation and people it
serves.
Copyright by BuzzFlash.com
This BuzzFlash commentary can be found in the main headline section of:
http://www.buzzflash.com
While Progressives and Democrats Rally
Round the Flag, It's the Right Wing that is Taking Pot Shots at America
(Top)
Many American Right-Wing Racial Extremists Applaud Sept. 11 Attacks
By JIM NESBITT
c.2001 Newhouse News Service
With the towers of the World Trade Center fatally damaged but still
standing, a leader in one of the many splinter groups of the Far Right
fringe of American politics posted a Web site message praising the
"Islamic freedom fighters" and hoping the terrorist attacks
were the first shots in a racial holy war that would topple the U.S.
government.
"May the WAR be started," wrote August Kreis, webmaster of
the neo-Nazi Sheriff's Posse Comitatus group, based in Ulysses, Pa.
"DEATH to His (God's) enemies, may the World Trade Center BURN TO
THE GROUND! ... We can blame no others than ourselves for our problems
due to the fact that we allow ... Satan's children, called jews today,
to have dominion over our lives."
While many Americans are swept up in the patriotic fervor that has
followed the Sept. 11 jetliner assaults on the Pentagon and the World
Trade Center, the loose and fractious network of neo-Nazis, skinheads,
Klansmen, Christian patriots, neo-Confederates and white separatists
have had a far different reaction.
In newsgroup postings, Web site articles and Internet radio
broadcasts,they have expressed everything from outright admiration for
the Arab terrorists to more measured communiques. The latter condemn
the terrorists,but blame the attacks on an American foreign policy
that unabashedly backs Israel, calling for an "America
First" shift toward isolationism.
The most hardcore response comes from groups that see themselves at
war with the U.S. government, which they have dubbed the Zionist
Occupation Government, or ZOG. Despite their racial and religious
beliefs, they express solidarity with anyone who attacks what they see
as the common enemy.
It is a sign of a pronounced generational shift of beliefs in the
radical American Right and increased willingness to monitor
international events to find philosophical allies in groups that an
earlier wave of racists dismissed as "mud people."
War against ZOG -- the U.S. government -- is the ultimate target of
America's racial revolutionaries and overrides all other
considerations. ZOG is a tagline from "The Turner Diaries,"
a novel of racist revolution by neo-Nazi National Alliance leader
William Pierce that has become a guidebook for many racists and
anti-government zealots, including executed Oklahoma City bomber
Timothy McVeigh.
In a bulletin board message documented by KlanWatch, the investigative
arm of the civil rights watchdog group, the Southern Poverty Law
Center, National Alliance deputy Billy Roper wrote: "The enemy of
our enemy is, for now at least, our friends. We may not want them
marrying our daughter, just as they would not want us marrying theirs.
We may not want them in our societies, just as they would not want us
in theirs. But anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building
to kill jews is alright by me. I wish our members had half as much
testicular fortitude."
On his daily Web site bulletin board, White Aryan Resistance (WAR)
leader Tom Metzger wrote: "This operation took some long-term
planning, and, throughout the entire time, these soldiers were aware
that their lives would be sacrificed for their cause. If an Aryan
wants an example of `Victory or Valhalla,' look no further."
Civil rights watchdogs who monitor these groups say sentiments like
those expressed by Metzger and Roper are common among white
separatists and anti-government zealots and are a marked departure
from the fanatical patriotism, anti-Communist fervor and white
supremacy espoused by movement founders like William Potter Gale, the
ex-Army colonel who formed the Posse Comitatus, or 1960s-era Klan
leaders like Robert Shelton of Alabama.
There is also a parroting of the anti-free trade, anti-global
capitalism rhetoric commonly found among the left-leaning street
protesters who have hounded meetings of the World Trade Organization
and World Bank, sparking riots in Seattle and in Italy, experts say.
"Thirty years ago, these people wrapped themselves in the flag,
were rabidly anti-Communist and fought against the civil rights
movement," said Mark Potok, KlanWatch spokesman and editor of its
quarterly Intelligence Report.
"Today, these people despise America, they despise capitalism,
they despise globalism and racial and religious diversity. What was
essentially a restorationist movement, like the Klan wanting to
restore Southern apartheid ... is an utterly revolutionary radical
right today."
Paired with an increasing awareness of international events and the
Internet-driven ability to communicate instantly with like-minded
groups in Europe, America's racially driven activists have expressed
support for the "ethnic cleansing" campaigns of deposed
Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and the push for a Palestinian
homeland and the "intifada" against Israel.
Common philosophical ground can be found between the radical Islamic
fundamentalists of Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the jetliner
attacks, and the radical racists of the American right, said Brian
Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at
the California State University at San Bernardino.
"It turns on religious purity, geographic purity and a rigid
philosophy on how society should be ordered," Levin said.
"Both want their own homeland, hermetically sealed, where they
can practice their own exclusionary, religion-based social order. In
many ways, American racial radicals mirror the intolerant, extremist
groups you see on the international scene."
Not everyone in the Far Right supports the terrorists who attacked
America.
"That's unfortunate," former Alabama Klan leader Don Black
said of Billy Roper's expression of admiration.
Black now runs a string of white separatist Web sites called
Stormfront out of his West Palm Beach, Fla., home. He and fellow
former Klan leader David Duke, an unsuccessful candidate for governor
and U.S. senator in Louisiana, condemn the attacks, but use them as a
platform for sharp criticism of American support of Israel and a call
for a more isolationalist foreign policy.
Duke, in an article entitled "Will Anyone Dare to Ask Why?"
that is posted on both his and Black's Web sites, calls Israel's
increasingly bloody fight with the Palestinians "a policy of
ethnic cleansing," and invokes the history of Israel's own
terrorist campaigns against the British and Arab residents of what was
then called Palestine.
"Let me be very, very blunt," Duke writes of the Sept. 11
attacks on America. "The ultimate cause of this terrorism stems
directly from our involvement in and support of the criminal behavior
of Israel."
Black downplayed the number of "white nationalists"
expressing support for the terrorists who attacked America and called
for swift punishment of those responsible. But at the same time, he
found common ground with Palestinian nationalists.
"We don't have too many people who are sympathetic to the
terrorists, but there are people who are sympathetic to the
Palestinian cause," he said. The Palestinians "have their
own agenda, but we certainly do share their dislike of American
foreign policy being controlled by Israel."
Militia groups and neo-Confederate organizations like the League of
the South also condemn the attacks and call for swift revenge. But
they, too, use this deadly incident as a platform to launch broadsides
on their own pet topics, be it immigration policy that they see as too
open and destructive of traditional American values or concern that
war fever will cause the government to clamp down on civil liberties.
In an article documented by KlanWatch, League of the South president
Michael Hill wrote: "In part, these events sprang from an `open
borders' policy that has for the past four decades encouraged massive
Third World immigration and thus cultural destabilization. ... This is
America's wake-up call to forsake its idolatry and to return to its
true Christian and Constitutional foundations."
Hill's sentiments were amplified by a more mainstream public figure,
conservative evangelist Jerry Falwell, one of the founders of the
politically active Moral Majority. "I really believe that the
pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the
lesbians. ... I point the finger in their face and say `You helped
this happen,"' Falwell said during the week of the attacks.
Falwell and fellow religious conservative Pat Robertson, who expressed
support for Falwell's position, were roundly criticized for these
remarks and backed off them.
But where mainstream religious leaders see a public relations
nightmare, leaders of Far Right fringe organizations see an
opportunity.
In a Web site post documented by KlanWatch, Matt Hale, leader of the
neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator, wrote: "The time is at hand
to preach ... why these attacks: the control of the United States
government by International Jewry. ... We must NOT allow this
opportunity to be squandered."
(Jim Nesbitt can be contacted at jim.nesbitt@newhouse.com)
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