NEW YORK (Press Release) … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Wednesday called the announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would freeze West Bank settlement building for 10 months a “courageous and unprecedented” tangible expression of Israel’s deep desire for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Robert G. Sugarman, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a courageous and unprecedented step in announcing a 10-month freeze on building in West Bank settlements in order to spur peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

“This politically difficult decision unquestionably demonstrates Israel’s deep and ongoing commitment to reaching a negotiated peace agreement with the Palestinians.  As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Senator George Mitchell both clearly acknowledged, the pledge announced by Prime Minister Netanyahu is more than any other Israeli government has done with regard to settlements and ‘helps move forward toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.’

We join with Israel and the United States in calling on the leadership of the Palestinian Authority and the Arab world to respond meaningfully to this significant step by Israel, and take their own meaningful action to promote reconciliation, peace and security with Israel.

*
Preceding provided by Anti-Defamation League

NEW YORK (Press Release)–The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday welcomed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appointment of Hannah Rosenthal to serve as the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.  
           

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

           
“This appointment signals the continued seriousness of America’s resolve to fight the anti-Semitism that we have seen gaining legitimacy in too many countries and to institutionalize that fight as an American foreign policy priority.

           
“We look forward to working with Hannah Rosenthal to mobilize the significant political will and resources of the United States to broaden understanding abroad about the new forms of anti-Semitism permeating public discourse.  Working with Secretary Clinton, and Assistant Secretary Michael Posner, we have no doubt that the Special Envoy will play an important role in encouraging countries to make the hard choices and to implement policy, legislative, judicial and educational measures to counter anti-Semitism.

           
The Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and the position of Special Envoy were established by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, sponsored by the late Rep. Tom Lantos (Democrat, California), Rep. Chris Smith (Republican, New Jersey) and Sen. George Voinovich (Republican, Ohio) to enhance State Department monitoring of and action against anti-Semitism. 

*
Preceding provided by Anti-Defamation League

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116664

© 2009 

Go figure.I’ve been labeled everything from a tool of the international Zionist conspiracy to Israel’s best friend to “the Arabian Knight” to “a righteous gentile.”I am asked to speak to more Jewish audiences, including many chapters of the B’nai Brith, both in the U.S. and Canada, than Christian audiences, even though I am an Arab-American Christian.I’m a former columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and my coverage and analysis of the Middle East has been hailed by Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as thousands of other prominent Jewish leaders in Israel and the U.S.Nevertheless, the ADL is after me and my news organization.In case you don’t know what the ADL stands for, it is the Anti-Defamation League – formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith. It was founded, the group’s website explains, “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”

Now, the group, which bills itself as “the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency,” claims to fight “anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry” and defend democratic ideals and civil rights for all.

So, why would the ADL go after me?

“Since the election of Barack Obama as president, a current of anti-government hostility has swept across the United States, creating a climate of fervor and activism with manifestations ranging from incivility in public forums to acts of intimidation and violence,” the group explains in its latest special report. “What characterizes this anti-government hostility is a shared belief that Obama and his administration actually pose a threat to the future of the United States. Some accuse Obama of plotting to bring socialism to the United States, while others claim he will bring about Nazism or fascism. All believe that Obama and his administration will trample on individual freedoms and civil liberties, due to some sinister agenda, and they see his economic and social policies as manifestations of this agenda. In particular, anti-government activists used the issue of health-care reform as a rallying point, accusing Obama and his administration of dark designs ranging from ’socialized medicine’ to ‘death panels,’ even when the Obama administration had not come out with a specific health-care reform plan. Some even compared the Obama administration’s intentions to Nazi eugenics programs.”

Well, to the aforementioned, I plead guilty.

If that’s the new definition of anti-Semitism in America, I guess I am one.

But I won’t be lonely, according to the ADL’s sweeping indictment of what has become popular American opinion.

Anyone who participated in a tea party is one also.

Anyone who got raucous at a town hall meeting is one, too.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is one for shouting “You lie” to the president – even though he apologized and even though he was right in his initial statement.

Glenn Beck is one for “raising anxiety about and distrust towards the government.”

But, as for me, my biggest “hate crime” appears to be the fact that I have continued to ask a question that few others in the media have been willing to ask – “Where’s the birth certificate?”

Did you know that is, according to the ADL, a sign of being a hate-monger and an anti-Semite?

It’s also an expression of “anti-government hostility or anger” and serves to proliferate “anti-government conspiracy theories.”

“One of the newest such theories, the so-called ‘birther’ movement, which rapidly spread during and after the 2008 election campaign, targeted Obama himself,” the ADL special report states. “‘Birthers’ claim that Obama is not a legitimate president because he allegedly was not born in the United States (as the Constitution requires), but rather in Kenya. Especially disturbing are the mainstream media figures and politicians who implicitly or explicitly endorse the ‘birther’ conspiracy theory, or refuse to condemn it. Two attorneys, Philip Berg of Pennsylvania and Orly Taitz of California, have been particularly active in spreading the ‘birther’ arguments, as has an on-line right-wing newspaper, World Net Daily (sic).”

Check out WND’s full line of eligibility products – bumper stickers, post cards, DVDs and more!

Of course, no one at WND to my knowledge has ever said Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. or suggested he was born in Kenya. What I have done, both through my commentaries and our news reporting, is to look for evidence and to ask Obama to provide it – as the Constitution clearly requires. Simply being born in the U.S., by the way, does not necessarily fulfill the constitutional requirement of “natural born citizenship.”

But I digress.

I’m not here to defend myself. I’m here to plead guilty to being very suspicious of government – even cynical at times.

By the way, has anyone pointed out to the ADL that is precisely the role of a free press in a free society?

Maybe they missed that. Maybe they are too busy looking for anti-Semites under their beds to have forgotten the First Amendment protections of the press were specifically written and ratified by the founders because they were as suspicious of government as I am – maybe even more so. It’s a good thing the ADL wasn’t around back then. Otherwise, we’d still be subjects of the British Crown – and already be enjoying the benefits of socialized medicine.

So, where do I turn myself in for the show trial?

UPDATES

• November 20 2009 — The full translation of Gonen Ginat’s column can be seen here. The scan of the original clipping is here.

ORIGINAL POST

Noam Sheizaf at the excellent Promised Land blog spotted this particularly vile attack on J Street by the deputy editor of Sheldon Adelson’s Israeli Netanyahu fanzine, Israel Hayom, in the paper’s Friday (November 20 2009) edition.

Let’s see if Abe Foxman of the ADL (the acronym, it’s sometimes easy to forget, for the Anti Defamation League) is as quick to defend J Street as he was to jump to Sara Palin’s aid.

Some of Ginat's co-religionists outside the conference. (Photo credit: Matt Duss via Steve Clemons.)

Gonen Ginat is deputy editor for Israel Hayom, the free paper billionaire Sheldon Adelson has launched last year in support of Benjamin Netanyahu and that since became the second widely read paper in Israel.

(The not-so-secret admiration of Israel Hayom for the PM was demonstrated again this week, following a visit by Netanyahu to a navy base. The PM slipped on a boat, and nearly fell to the water. The day after three out of four dailies printed the pictures of Netanyahu loosing his footing, while oneshowed the PM in full command, standing next to the Chief of Staff. You can read more about it and see pics here.)

Back to Ginat. This weekend, Israel Hayom published its first weekend edition (what caused great concern among the other tabloids). Ginat holds the prestigious last page column of the political section, and he decided to make its debut with a brutal attack on J-Street. His entire article was dedicated to comparing the new lobbying group to a Jew named Yaakov Tachtenberg who published in April 33′ a statement in support of Nazi Germany.

It is no news that the only history lesson the Israeli Right attended was about Europe before WW2. with them it’s always 39′, everyone who doesn’t agree with them is an anti-Semite, probably a Nazi, and every Arab leader is Hitler (following this line, Netanyahu’s idol is Churchill). Egypt’s Nasser was Hitler, Arafat was Hitler, Ahmadinijad is Hitler, and only Abu-Mazen is not Hitler, just a Holocaust denier, i.e. a Nazi (That’s in Ginat article as well, by the way). But still, throwing the Nazi connection at the ever-so-careful people of J-Street, who open every sentence with “as Zionists and supporters of Israel”? That’s taking it a bit too far, I would say.

After quoting the Tachtenberg piece from 33′, and before quoting a similar article, written by a German “intellectual and reform Rabbi” (Ginat is Orthodox), Ginat writes:

“Soon they will be heating the ovens in Auschwitz, but the Jews of Germany didn’t let the facts reach them. Typical Jewish stubbornness, just like in J-Street (…). They published letters and made it clear that the fear of eradication is merely propaganda. With about the same words J-Street uses when Iran is discussed.”

Forget the fact that in 33′ nobody discussed eradication, not even the Nazis. Let’s listen to the deputy editor’s bottom line:

“Not that many years after (the holocaust), J-Street don’t get what’s wrong with hosting anti-Semites and cheering for holocaust deniers (…). Maybe they are right, maybe. On the other hand, when J-street find it difficult to figure who is right in the confrontation between Israel and Hamas, from the Middle East it is difficult, real difficult, to tell the difference between Tachtenberg and J-Street.”

The Anti-Defamation League calls conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, who has his own popular syndicated radio show and television program, the “most important mainstream media figure who has repeatedly helped to stoke the fires of anti-government anger.” In a new report, it says that he is scarier than other conservative hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly, making them look like liberals in comparison.

The ADL is a racist Zionist organization that is working to advance the goals of Marxism, silencing conservative and libertarian voices by, quite maturely, screaming “Nazi!” at anyone that opposes their leftist point of view. In this way it is no different from black racists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton that also play the race card, criticizing black conservatives and keeping black voters in the fold of the Democratic Party through corrupt and unnecessary redistributions of wealth. Essentially, the ADL is stuck in 1939, and believes that any modern conservative movement is equivalent to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party in the early 1920s, as described in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Yes, anti-Semitism is still alive–just look at militant Islam, or at the United Nations, which repeatedly passes anti-Israel resolutions. But conservatives like Glenn Beck defend Judeo-Christian values to a fault, and neo-con realist talk show host Dr. Michael Savage is Jewish.

The Anti-Defamation League went so far as to belittle the Armenian Genocide of 1915, when in 2007 the group opposed U.S. recognition of the event as, specifically, a “genocide.” It is clear that the ADL’s agenda comes before even its original guiding principles, as its leadership selfishly slanders anyone it disagrees with.

What is most disturbing about a report like this is that it regards libertarian dissent as “anti-government.” Funny; I must have missed Glenn Beck’s anarchist rants. If anything, many conservatives are just as much about big government as are liberals. One group uses government to control personal liberty, while the other uses it to control economic liberty, and both are blind to their own fault in this matter.

Dissent is both right and necessary in a democracy, particularly when elected representatives begin to ignore United States history, and either brush off, or even silence, their constituents. Their bosses and employers, if you will. Whether one agrees with Glenn Beck or not, his views are protected by the First Amendment. Even hate speech is free speech, and his agenda certainly doesn’t go that far. The true threat to liberty is the group that seeks to silence Beck and his kind, by suggesting that in exercising his right to speak freely he is a threat.

Which is why I ask, a threat to whom? When the Anti-Defamation League labels Glenn Beck as “scary,” who is he scaring? Marxists and Big Brother supporters? Anyone that fears a man based on the words of his mouth, when he promotes liberty, might be standing on the wrong side of both the Constitution and the best interests of the American people.

So I ask, again: does Glenn Beck scare you?

Jeff Gates

The Anti-Defamation League silencing strategy offers a microcosm of how the US was induced to war in Iraq based on false intelligence, says Jeff Gates.

Lawful Treason?

Winning wars in the Information Age largely depends on winning the battle for public opinion. Thus the opinion-shaping role of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) when it attacked a high profile California professor for his criticism of Israeli policy in Palestine.

That ADL intimidation campaign successfully chilled debate on campuses nationwide during several time-critical months while a new president, promising the hope of change, reassessed U.S.-Israeli relations. His only change—endorsing more Israeli settlements on Palestinian land—quashed any hope of peace.

This ADL silencing strategy offers a microcosm of how the U.S. was induced to war in Iraq based on false intelligence. From the provocation of September 11, 2001 until the invasion of March 2003, war-planners ignored, dismissed or sought to silence anyone critical of the spurious premises offered for war.

Only later did we discover that the intelligence was fixed around a preset agenda. Even now, Americans are unaware that the U.S.-led invasion had long been an Israeli goal.

In similar fashion, an ADL campaign silenced on-campus criticism of Israel’s December 2008 assault on Gaza. At the University of California Santa Barbara, ADL-initiated charges were lodged against sociology Professor William Robinson. The disciplinary action dragged on until June 24th when 100 professors and 20 department heads demanded an end to all proceedings.

By then the damage was done-to the reputation of Professor Robinson, to academic freedom at the University of California and to national security as this campaign silenced academics countrywide. While Robinson’s reputation can be restored, the damage to national security is irreparable.

Manipulating Thought

The ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles coordinated the assault on Robinson after he shared with students from his globalization website a photo essay critical of Israel. The essay had circulated for weeks on the Internet.

Aaron Ettenberg, a member of the Faculty Senate Charges Committee, collaborated with Santa Barbara Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer who reviled Robinson in the local community and urged-along with the ADL-that he be disciplined by the university for his “anti-Semitic” behavior.

Chancellor Henry Yang was subjected to threats to withhold funding featuring a campaign led by ADL National Director Abe Foxman and Rabbi Marvin Heir from the Wiesenthal Center.

Professor Ettenberg had served the previous two years as president of the local chapter of B’nai B’rith, an ADL affiliate. Rabbi Gross-Schaefer was director of the local chapter of Hillel, an on-campus ADL affiliate.

Mark Yudof, president of the University of California, opted not to intervene even as this silencing campaign attracted international attention. Yudof’s wife, Judith, is the immediate past international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism representing 760 synagogues. She is also a director of Hillel.

As with the dominance of Jewish Zionists among neoconservative war-planners, the pro-Israeli bias was all-pervasive. Richard Blum chairs the statewide Board of Regents for the University of California. His wife, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. What was their reaction as this professor was silenced? Silence.

Coincidence or Faith-Based Coordination?

Would a professor and a local rabbi have risked their careers and their reputations absent their confidence that-based on the shared bias of university administrators and government officials-they could intimidate with impunity? Absent such implied support, would this silencing operation have dragged on for so long?

Absent their silence-with its tacit approval-what might have been the impact of campus criticism when Israel’s assault on the captive population of Gaza left 1300 dead, one-third reportedly women and children? Those complicit in this silencing campaign knew the impact on public opinion of student protests against the Vietnam War-particularly on California campuses.

Those concerned about anti-Semitism must explain how this broadly coordinated intimidation campaign was allowed to succeed. In the same way that public opinion was manipulated prior to an invasion that launched the Global War on Terrorism, this campaign sought to deny students the facts required to understand Israel’s role in provoking that terror.

Absent access to facts, how can the U.S. preserve a system of self-governance founded on the premise of informed consent? Without facts, how can national security be protected from those who “fix” intelligence in order to deploy the U.S. military for the interests of a foreign nation?

Unless those complicit are held accountable, how will American youth learn the essential role of free and open debate on topics of direct relevance to their lives?

In a representative system of government, the greatest threat to liberty is manipulation of the facts required for informed citizen participation. Anyone who cherishes freedom should be alarmed at the ongoing success of such manipulation and outraged that its common source traces to a purported ally.

Psychological warfare targets knowledge as a means to manipulate thought, opinion and emotion (the “hearts and minds”) and thereby influence behavior. At the center of such disinformation is the displacement of facts with false beliefs meant to prod decision-making toward a preset goal.

Thus the false reports of Iraqi WMD, Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda, Iraqi mobile biological weapons laboratories and so forth. Thus the high profile assault on a high-profile center of learning to silence a professor who threatened to replace manipulated beliefs with confirmed facts.

Where U.S. policies toward Israel are at stake, facts are routinely suppressed to shape debate. Such strategic deceit systematically undermines U.S. national security.

Treason in Plain Sight

Intimidation campaigns have long been a key tool for organized crime and for those whose undisclosed agenda can succeed only when shielded from public scrutiny. Those complicit in such “psy-ops” know their agenda could not prevail in an open debate. They also know that if their treachery is detected they face charges of treason, a capital crime.

That’s why this form of treason instead targets knowledge to corrupt the facts required for informed choice. That focus denies those targeted a meaningful choice while leaving intact the appearance of open debate. Meanwhile the perpetrators seek refuge behind the very freedoms they undermine-freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion.

In this case, pro-Israeli operatives silenced on-campus criticism of Israel while Israel committed dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Evidence of those crimes was depicted in the Internet-posted photo essay that the ADL attacked as “anti-Semitic.”

What was the strategic result? That assault on Gaza marked yet another violent provocation guaranteed to catalyze a violent reaction (aka “terrorism”), adding plausibility to the narrative of “militant Islam.” The result made the U.S. appear guilty by its association with this criminality.

We then compounded our complicity by covering up the facts when the Congress, dominated by the Israel lobby, overwhelmingly approved a resolution portraying as “irredeemably biased” a chronicle of those war crimes in “The Goldstone Report,” a comprehensive account by an eminent Jewish jurist. [See How the Israel Lobby Took Control of U.S. Foreign Policy http://criminalstate.com]

The U.S. was doubly damaged. We not only discredited ourselves, we also endangered our national security by condoning criminality destined to provoke more violence directed at our troops.

When such psy-ops campaigns are detected, defenders of democracy must fight back by making the perpetrators transparent and their common motivation apparent. This is how Israel wages war on the U.S. from inside the U.S.-by deceiving us to wage its wars and by provoking others to hate us due to our alliance with religious extremists and their apartheid policies.

Duplicity has long been a weapon deployed to “wage war by way of deception.” That’s the operative motto of the Mossad, the intelligence and foreign operations branch of the Jewish nationalists who have dominated Israeli politics since a Christian-Zionist president erred in 1948 by recognizing as a legitimate “state” this enclave of Jewish extremists and ultra-nationalists.

Israel specializes in what the Pentagon calls unconventional warfare. Such warfare is only “unconventional” for the targeted population (us). For militant Zionists, this is how war is waged. When your numbers are few and your ambitions vast, deceit becomes an essential force-multiplier.

In the Information Age, why would anyone expect war to be waged in any way other than by deception? Where else but in plain sight could such warfare be waged?

For freedom to prevail against such psy-ops requires a shift in strategic focus. A robust defense would make this manipulation transparent in real time before deception can work its intended impact on public opinion.

The dominance of pro-Israelis in mainstream media complicates that task. Media complicity was essential to succeed in the deceit that took the U.S. to war and that now seeks to obscure Israeli war crimes.

A Special Relationship with Fanatics

The Pentagon warned six decades ago that Jewish extremists sought military and economic dominance over the entire Middle East. As the Joint Chiefs of Staff cautioned Harry Truman:

“All stages of this program are equally sacred to the fanatical concepts of the Jewish leaders. The program is openly admitted by some leaders, and has been privately admitted to United States officials by responsible leaders of the presently dominant Jewish group-The Jewish Agency.”

Other than religious fanatics, who would deny Americans-including college students-the facts required to make informed choices on an issue as critical as taking the U.S. to war in the Middle East? Other than pro-Israeli publishers and broadcast media owners, who would have the motivation to report as “facts” the phony intelligence that was fixed around Israeli goals?

If not Israel and its Zionist advocates-both Christians and Jews-who would have the means, motive, opportunity and, importantly, the stable nation state intelligence required to corrupt the intelligence that took the U.S. to war? Or to silence academic critics just when those who induced the invasion of Iraq intensified their efforts to expand this war to Iran and now Pakistan?

If the behavior described is not treason, what is? If this is treason, why have those complicit not been charged? Is Professor Ettenberg still employed by the university? If so, why? Have rabbis Gross-Schaefer and Heir been dismissed from their positions of influence? If not, why not?

Why hasn’t the ADL’s Abe Foxman been indicted? Did he confer with the Yudoffs during this silencing campaign? Has a federal grand jury been impaneled to consider charges of treason? Foxman was invited to the White House for the October 28th signing of the ADL’s “model hate crimes” bill. Will that federal legislation now be deployed to lawfully intimidate critics?

Have mainstream publishers and media owners been investigated for their complicity in this national scale fraud on public opinion? If not, why not? Is the Federal Communications Commission moving to revoke the broadcast licenses of those who used the public airwaves to deceive the public?  If not, why not?

Are news reports correct that an investment firm run by Richard Blum made more than $100 million on the rising value of its stock in a top defense contractor? Did his firm also invest in media outlets that sold us this war?

In an irony of epic proportions, ADL’s amendment to federal hate crimes law was tacked onto an appropriations bill for the Department of Defense. Will the ADL now seek to portray as “anti-Semitic” those who document for a long-deceived military the common source of the psy-ops that took U.S. forces to war in the Middle East?

Will those who repeat the Joint Chiefs’ warning about religious fanatics be targeted for federal prosecution? Will allegations of hate be deployed to silence debate? Is treason now lawful?

Jeff gates

Jeff Gates : Author, educator, attorney, merchant banker and adviser to policy-makers worldwide and U.S. Veteran.  Jeff was counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance (1980-87) working for Democrat Russell Long, son of Louisiana Governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long. Specialist in employee benefits law—pensions, 401(k) plans, stock options, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), et.al. Tax-qualified employee benefit plans accounted for $17 trillion in assets (April 2007) and more than half the funds in the hands of institutional investors. As of 2007, ESOPs were in place in 11,500 firms nationwide, covering 10% of the U.S. workforce and holding $800 billion in assets.

Law practice w/ former Senators Russell Long, Democrat of Louisiana and Paul Laxalt, Republican of Nevada, chairman of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns.

Counsel to Kelso & Company, Manhattan-based merchant bankers, completing $4 billion in transactions in 24-months, including the $3 billion leveraged buyout of American Standard, Inc., with employees and managers gaining a 33% stake in this multinational firm.

Author, Democracy at Risk – Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street  (April 2000).  Written as a sequel to The Ownership Solution –Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century (1998). Both books cited by presidential candidate Ralph Nader when branding U.S. Greens “the party of the new populism.” Guilt By Association – How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008).

Draftsman, 1986 Presidential Task Force Report on Project Economic Justice: “U.S. Efforts to Encourage Employee Stock Ownership Plans in Central America and the Caribbean.” Author, World Bank Discussion Paper: Employee Stock Ownership Plans: Objectives, Design Options, International Experience; DEMOS Argument Series (U.K.): Revolutionizing Share Ownership – The Stakeowner Economy; Tomorrow’s Capitalism (Pacific Institute), et. al.

Advisory work with 35-plus governments, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the U.K. South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung announced August 2000 that the Korean edition of The Ownership Solution was his vacation-reading pick.

Contributor to trade, professional and popular publications worldwide: Financial Times, Japan Times, Financial Executive, M&A Today, Boston Review, Latin Finance, East/West Business Report, Society, Human Resource Management, Los Angeles Times, National Journal, World Times, The Humanist, Peace Review, Business Ethics, America, Tikkun, Whole Earth, Perspectives, Journal of Society of Organizational Learning, Journal of Organizational Change Management, et.al..

He is also the author of the new book Guilt by Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War.  His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century.

He resides in Tempe Arizona. jeffgates2@gmail.com. Visit his web site, www.criminalstate.com

Read Also:

“Treason in Plain Sight”

“ADL Thought Police”

“How Israel Controls US”

How the Israel Lobby Took Control of U.S. Foreign Policy - By: Jeff Gates

The Israeli Occupation of America: How Israel Gained Control of American Foreign Policy and Public Opinion – By: Hesham Tillawi

AIPAC Sends in the Clowns! - By Franklin Lamb

How Zionist Lobby Stooges in Congress Brought Shame to their Institution - By: Alan Hart

Prof. William Robinson speaks out in defense of Academic Freedom  after being attacked and intimidated by Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The Anti-Defamation League released a report entitled Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies.  It chronicles, in detail, the growth of the “militia movement” in America since the election of Barack Obama.  The aspect of the report which is getting the attention of liberal news outlets is the part that specifically attributes Glenn Beck’s incendiary rhetoric and his use of the far-right fringe to earn a buck. 

As the ADL states,

The most important mainstream media figure who has repeatedly helped to stoke the fires of anti-government anger is right-wing media host Glenn Beck, who has a TV show on FOX News and a popular syndicated radio show. While other conservative media hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, routinely attack Obama and his administration, typically on partisan grounds, they have usually dismissed or refused to give a platform to the conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists. This has not been the case with Glenn Beck. Beck and his guests have made a habit of demonizing President Obama and promoting conspiracy theories about his administration.

This has been a disturbing tradition of Beck which needs to go away.  I remember as I entered the realm of political opinion during the runup to to the Iraq war, there were plenty of crazies out there who had all sorts of conspiracy theories.  The difference between then and now was that the left wing crazies didn’t have a representative on MSNBC.  There was no one drawing arrows on a chalkboard between Bush’s picture and Hitler, there was no one constantly sounding the alarm that their country had been stolen or crying on the set due to their fear over the threat of fascism.

The lunatic right-wing fringe has that in Glenn Beck.  Way to be that light on the hill.

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, Nov 18, 2009

Related: Purging The Undesirables: ADL Attempts To Pin A Yellow Star On Grass Roots America

 The Anti-Defamation League has published a fresh report directly targeting Alex Jones as an “extremist” and “The King of conspiracy”, lumping in the information contained on this website with the actions of racists and white supremacists.

 There is, as usual, one major problem with the ADL’s report – it is devoid of any empirical fact and based entirely on the group’s desire to create the impression that huge swathes of politically disgruntled Americans are violent conspiratorial-minded bigots that they must expose and counter.

 “With conspiracy talk-show host Alex Jones leading the way, one of the most disturbing trends in 2009 has been the resurrection and proliferation of some of the same anti-government conspiracy theories that so riled up domestic extremists in the 1990s.” the ADL writes.

 The organisation defines three major issues as “conspiracy theories” that exist only in the mind of paranoid delusional extremists. They are:

 • Imposition of Martial Law. The federal government is plotting to declare martial law in the near future as a way to strip Americans of their freedoms and institute the New World Order. The government may utilize or even manufacture a crisis, such as the swine flu epidemic, in order to have an excuse for imposing martial law.
• Gun Confiscation. The government is plotting to embark upon a massive program of gun confiscation, going door to door to take firearms away from American citizens so that they will be unable to resist the New World Order. Police, the military and even foreign troops may be used in the gun confiscation efforts.
• FEMA Concentration Camps. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has constructed hundreds of concentration camps in the United States, designed to hold “dissidents” and other American citizens following some imminent crackdown such as a declaration of martial law.

Let’s take each one of these topics and provide some much needed context that is sorely missing from the ADL’s slapped together hit piece.

 With regards to martial law and the idea that a crisis could be used to impose it, the ADL should consider speaking with Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman of California’s 27th congressional district and Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

 Sherman has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1997 and also serves on the Committee on Financial Services along with Texas Congressman Ron Paul, whom the ADL ludicrously refer to in their report as “a far right icon”.

 In early October 2008, Sherman told the House that he personally knew of several Congressional representatives who have said they were threatened with the prospect of all out martial law should they vote in opposition to the $700 billion bailout that was eventually passed just over one year ago.

 “The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. That atmosphere is not justified.” Sherman stated.

 ”Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no.” The Congressman continued.

 A few weeks later, Senator James Inhofe named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as the source of the threat of martial law. Inhofe revealed that Paulson made the threat during a conference call on September 19th, around two weeks before the legislation was eventually approved by both the Senate and Congress.

 Congressman Brad Sherman and Senator James Inhofe, two extremist conspiracy theorists according to the ADL’s definition.

 For years, Congress has operated under “martial law” provisions which force members to vote on legislation without having time to adequately read and review it.

In addition, the U.S. has been in a declared state of national emergency for over 8 years. During that time it has emerged in several officially released reports, FOIA acquired documents and leaked government memos that preparation and planning is in the works for martial law style scenarios.

 Most recently Barack Obama declared a second national state of emergency with regards to the swine flu epidemic. A national emergency allows normal legal procedures regarding a certain issue to be sidelined, should the federal government deem it necessary. Yet to even suggest that might be a fact means you could be a mass murderer in the ADL’s eyes.

 Perhaps the most well known threat of martial law came in 2003 from General Tommy Franks, the former commander of the military’s Central Command.

Franks outlined the scenario by which martial law would be put in place, saying, “It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.”

 The threat of martial law is real, even if the imposition of martial law is yet to become a reality, yet to the ADL it is “extremist” to point out these straight forward facts.

The second paranoid delusional theory according to the ADL is gun confiscation.

 The ADL says it is an extremist’s fantasy that police and military could be used to confiscate guns in the wake of a national emergency. However, this is exactly what happened in New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina in 2005, as the following video comprised of news footage, eyewitness statements and police press conferences outlines:

 Again, the threat of gun confiscation is real.

 Legislation to impose unprecedented controls on gun ownership is real.

 It was real when George W. Bush was president and it is still real now Barack H. Obama is president.

 Over the last couple of years intense debate has raged over the very meaning of the second amendment as new gun laws have been legislated and passed.

I’m not an extremist for pointing this out, all I have done is read the newspaper.

 The third “extremist conspiracy theory”, according to the ADL, is the existence of FEMA camps. An anti-government delusional or a real and pressing issue? Unlike the ADL, we will provide some evidence rather than what “someone wrote on a forum” to help you decide.

 Recent Legislation introduced into Congress mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations.

The purpose of such facilities is to provide “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” the expansion of which under FEMA is codified under HR 645, otherwise known as the National Emergency Centers Act.

 Ominously, the bill states that the camps can be used to “meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” an open ended mandate which many fear could mean the forced detention of American citizens in the event of widespread rioting after a national emergency or total economic collapse.

 The issue of containment camps re-gained national attention three years ago when it was announced that Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.

 The language of the preamble to the agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps will also be used “as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency.”

 Following the story, first given wide attention by Prisonplanet.com, the Alternet website put together an alarming report that collated all the latest information on plans to initiate internment of political subversives and Muslims after the next major terror attack in the US.

 The article highlighted the disturbing comments of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who encouraged torture supporting then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to target, “Fifth Columnists” Americans who show disloyalty and sympathize with “the enemy,” whoever that enemy may be.

 It is important to stress that the historical precedent mirrors exactly what the Halliburton camp deal outlines. Oliver North’s Reagan era  Rex 84 plan proposed rounding up 400,000 refugees, under FEMA, in the event of “uncontrolled population movements” over the Mexican border into the United States.

 The real agenda, just as it is with Halliburton’s gulags, was to use the cover of rounding up immigrants and illegal aliens as a smokescreen for targeting political dissidents. From 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the “ADEX” list.

 As recently highlighted by author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of close to one million “terror suspects” with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.

 Discussions of federal concentration camps are no longer the rhetoric of paranoid Internet conspiracy theorists, they are mainstream news.

 Furthermore, a much discussed and circulated report, the  Pentagon’s Civilian Inmate Labor Program, has recently been updated and the revision details a “template for developing agreements” between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.”

 The plan is clearly to swallow up disenfranchised groups like prisoners, immigrants and Muslims at first and then extend the policy to include ‘Fifth Columnists,’ otherwise known as anyone who disagrees with the government or exercises their Constitutional rights.

 Respected author Peter Dale Scott speculated that the “detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law.”

 Daniel Ellsberg, former Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense, called the plan, “preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters. They’ve already done this on a smaller scale, with the ’special registration’ detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo.”

 Furthermore, In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster.

 Okanogan County Commissioner Dave Schulz went public in 2003 with his contention that his county was set to be a location for one of the camps.

 Furthermore, in May 2006, we exposed the existence of a nationwide FEMA program which is training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to “obey the government” in preparation for the implementation of martial law, property and firearm seizures, mass vaccination programs and forced relocation.

 This program is continuing under the Obama administration with churches declaring that Barack Obama’s presidency is appointed by God and that Obama himself is “God’s minister”.

 Of course, the authors of the ADL report will not thoroughly read this article. They will not check the links to mainstream news articles and official government documents.

 They will simply take it as more evidence to use to smear Alex Jones, his readers and the truth community. They will continue to lump in patriotic Americans and freedom lovers everywhere with the activities of a minority of racists and psychopaths that they choose to highlight.

 More and more people are uniting in protest against the erosion of liberty, embracing a peaceful revolution of information, their causes overlapping, whether it be anti-war protesters, those against the bailout of private offshore corporations or second amendment activists, the list goes on.

 However, the ADL will continue to tell you that America is about to explode into a cess pit of violence, rage and hatred. The ADL will always tell you this because it has to, otherwise it will no longer have a purpose, it will no longer receive funding, and like any organization it will go out of business.

 Once again, the anachronous ADL has proven that far from railing against discrimination and division, it is engaged in actively promoting and encouraging it by spreading libelous lies and concocting character assassinations in order to ensure its own survival.

The Anti-Defamation League recently released a report, titled, “Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies”. The report was so bizarre and strung together in an obvious attempt at connecting political dissidents to- pretty much homegrown terrorists.

Naturally, they start by stating that it all started because of the election of Barack Obama. I guess they didn’t get the memo the past 8 years. Their mistake. Other than that, they hit the reasoning behind this dissent pretty much on the head- “Obama and his administration actually pose a threat to the future of the United States…..plotting to bring socialism to the United States, while others claim he will bring about Nazism or fascism….Obama and his administration will trample on individual freedoms and civil liberties, due to some sinister agenda, and they see his economic and social policies as manifestations of this agenda”. Well, at least they got the message, right?

They go on to state that, “Ultimately, this anti-government anger, if it continues to grow in intensity and scope, may result in an increase in anti-government extremists and the potential for a rise of violent anti-government acts.” Um, no, Anti-Defamation League. If our GOVERNMENT continues to grow in intensity and scope, more people will revolt by exercising their constitutional right to fight tyranny.

They claim it all began to manifest with the Tea Parties, and that the people attending were anti-government and basically conspiracy theorists. For one, they aren’t anti-government- they are “anti-Obama Administration’s” idea of the role of government. And I am sorry, as much as it makes for a better news story to assume this movement is a personal attack against our first black president- it’s simply not true. The tea parties started up in an attempt to stop our government from spending our country out of existence.

Town Hall meetings were not spared, either. “These events became a fertile ground for anti-Obama protests and stunts, with some protesters angrily launching verbal attacks against the president as well as other officeholders. A number of protests explicitly compared the Obama administration and its policies to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.”  I can’t even comment on this one, we all know how incredibly blown out of proportion it is.

They attack the birther’s also. I have not paid much attention to this whole thing because I am more concerned with what he is doing RIGHT NOW. But apparently this is one of their biggest concerns because they wasted no time slamming that movement into the “tin foil hat wearers” and “noose bearing rednecks” category.

They attack the media as well. As far as I can see the only news network involved in all of this is Fox News- which is a lame attempt at controlled opposition anyways. And, you know they had to be specific in mentioning Glenn Beck. Listen people, if you can’t see through Glen Beck’s theatrics you are gonna vote another Obama into office in 2012, only this one will come with a Republican tag. Controlled opposition. Repeat it until it clicks.

Alex Jones: The Conspiracy King. They attack his personal radio show as well as Infowars.com. They mention the infamous “American Concentration Camps” yet fail to mention H.R 645 that establishes these facilities. I don’t care WHAT you call them- call them community centers if you’d like. It is what it is. And I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but currently, all roads are leading to martial law. That, also, is what it is.

They mention conspiracy theories and government plots. The government plotting on us? No way! Oh- besides that one time Bush’s Granddaddy tried to help overthrow the government….Plenty of other instances that I will not get into here, if you care, you will Google them.

Can’t leave out the fear of “government drills” now, can we? I mean, it was only on the morning of September 11, 2001 that NORAD was out doing mock drills of- you guessed it- terrorists high jacking commercial airliners in an attempt to carry out an attack- leaving us defenseless that morning with no fighter jets able to stop the second, third and fourth planes. Oh, I don’t have to mention the other drills that went live, Google that, too.

Eh- this is getting old. They pretty much slam everyone that is opposed to Obama. Because, ya know, in a perfect country, we will all love and respect our leader no matter what he may do- even leaders who round up their people and put them in gas chambers…….

The Republican Jewish Coalition attacked my blog posts about GOP Nazi rhetoric. The posts they link to are:

GOP Nazi Rhetoric Continues and Backfires

and

Harris to GOP: Rein in Your Base

Read their post here:

Democrat Group Aims Hypocritical Smear Campaign Against GOP Leaders, Tea Party Protesters

Its full of inaccuracies and I will have a response up sooon on NJDC’s blog.

ADL to GOP: “Condemn Forcefully the Invocation of Holocaust Imagery” | NJDC Blog.

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–The Anti-Defamation League is delighted to announce the appointment of Rick Barton (at right) as ADL’s National Chairman for Education

Barton is a partner at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, a leading San Diego law firm.  He serves as litigation counsel and consultant to health systems, hospitals, physician groups and individual providers in business, class action, professional liability, fraud and
abuse, and administrative matters in both Federal and State court.

In 1992, Barton began working in a volunteer capacity for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in San Diego. He served as the Chairman of the San Diego Regional Advisory Board from 1998-2002. In 2000, he was named an ADL National Commissioner and in 2002, became a member of ADL’s National Executive Committee. In 2005, he was named National Vice Chair of nternational Affairs. He then served as National Chair of Leadership from
2007 to 2009 which included responsibility for managing ADL’s prestigious
annual Shana Amy Glass National Leadership Conference in Washington D.C.
The San Diego Regional Office is honored and proud to announce his
appointment as National Chairman for Education at ADL’s Annual Meeting in
New York this November.

As part of his involvement with ADL, Barton has traveled to the Middle
East and Europe for meetings with officials of the Israeli Government, the
Palestinian Authority, the United Nations and European Governments. He has
served as a contributor to the San Diego Union Tribune on the Israeli
Palestinian conflict and Anti-Semitism. He has lectured and is a regular
speaker on the conflict in the Middle East, Anti-Semitism, Holocaust,
Religious Freedom, and Church-State issues. He is a recipient of ADL’s
Torch of Liberty Award, ADL’s highest honor for its volunteer leadership.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading
organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that
counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

**
Preceding provided by the San Diego Regional office of the Anti-Defamation League

By Hesham Tillawi, PhD

Now I want you to remember, that no bastard EVER wond by dying for
his country.He won it by making the OTHER poor dumb bastard die for
his country.” - George Patton

It was my first year on television, when one self proclaimed Palestinian-American “leader” requested that I remove his name from my mailing list. The reason he gave was that my guest for that particular week was accused of being –surprise, surprise–an “anti-Semite”  “by the ADL,” the largest Jewish organization in the country as well as other Jewish groups in the media and that we “Palestinians” need to be very careful not to be seen or be labeled as “anti-Semitic” despite the fact that we are Semites ourselves.

I obliged him by removing him from the list. As fate would have it, this man and I ended up working together couple of years ago on a committee to advance Palestinian activism in the US and therefore shared an email list. During the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2008/2009 someone on the list suggested that a few volunteers dress up with suits similar to those worn by Jews and others in Germany’s concentration camps in an upcoming demonstration in Chicago. I personally thought it was an awesome idea and would deliver a clear message to the world of the gravity of the situation on the ground in Gaza.

Well, it was not long after that another email came through on the list from this same self-proclaimed “leader”, fetching the same line of “we must at all costs avoid be accused of anti-Semitism”. He bolstered his argument with the notion that the only thing necessary on our part is that we show people the truth about our cause, because the truth is on our side. Another great brilliant publicity opportunity down the drain.

The story of the now-infamous Rabbis of New Jersey being involved in selling organs (believed to have been snatched out of unarmed Palestinians kidnapped by Israeli soldiers) hit the World like a boulder. Mountains of evidence and eye-witness reports more than suggesting this actually was (and probably still is) an Israeli practice. But the “Rabbis and the body snatchers” is not my topic and I am not going to dig deeply into it as there are already plenty of others out there dealing with the topic and my reason for bringing it up is to illustrate something concerning the man who is afraid of being accused as an anti-Semite.

Yesterday an email came through on the list server asking people not to talk much about the organ stealing because some guy wrote an article saying that the Swedish news paper who published the article did not have solid proof that this actually took place. Again, the same line that “the truth is on our side” and we have many massacres and many catastrophes that we can continue to tell the World about and therefore we need to leave the story of the organs alone until we have solid proof it took place.

Personally I was outraged with the stupidity of this line of reasoning. Ok, call it another opinion, but the issue is this–Being a “nice guy” has gotten us NOWHERE. This thing–the story involving the organ harvesters–not only walks like a duck, it quacks, looks and spits like a duck. The darn thing even TASTES like a duck and yet this individual still wants proof.

As much as this may ruffle the feathers of a few out there (no pun intended) let me say this nevertheless to those who agree with this individual–To hell with proof. We have enough information on this to hit Israel bad with this, very bad I might add. Hit them, use it to your advantage, worry about the consequences later. Let the Israelis worry about proving it did not happen. You have one of the largest newspaper in Sweden willing to put its reputation on the line for it. They are supporting their reporter, the government of Sweden told Israel to go to hell, that they believe in Freedom of Press, and you are telling Palestinians not to fight using this weapon? You have people in Palestine testifying that their loved ones came home to them dead with missing organs. IS THEIR TESTIMONY NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? You have Rabbis arrested for selling organs that they say came from Israel. IS THE TESTIMONY OF THE US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? What about the Israeli Pathologist under investigation for stealing Palestinians organs from the morgue? What about stories of Israeli doctors cutting open Palestinians after being shot in both Gaza and the West bank and stealing their organs?

Let the Israelis prove this did not happen. In the mean time as a soldier in the field (and you are one) use the weapon given to you. As an activist your job is to fight Israeli propaganda all over the world. It is not the job of a soldier to be “nice”. You must fight with every weapon at your disposal, FEROCIOUSLY, because you can be rest assured (as we all well know) the other side is fighting with nothing but lies and deception, from the start of the Zionist movement to the present settlers movement, and you cannot tell me that they did not succeed. Meanwhile, we are carrying our truth on our backs and roaming the world telling people about it, begging for their sympathy. We are carrying the keys to our homes that we were driven from to show the World we still have our keys, but where are our homes?  Yes, we are the land owners, yes, our land was confiscated, our people massacred, and driven out of the land, our trees burnt, our sheep killed, etc. The world knows all that, and yet it is “sensational” stories like the “body snatchers” that grabs attention of people around the World and will remain in their minds as the image of Israel.

As bad as it sounds, the stories involving the organ harvesting are nothing less than a gift from God to our cause and we should not be so ungrateful to Him who sent it to us by hiding it in a closet.

In closing I would ask the reader to think back to a great movie made many decades ago about the life of one of America’s greatest military leaders, Patton. In the opening scene, he is standing, as stiff as a tree and as strong as a mountain in front of a huge American flag as military music is playing. He is addressing the troops under his command right at the start of America’s entry into WWII. His opening lines went like this-

“Now I want you to remember, that no bastard EVER won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the OTHER poor dumb bastard die for his country.”

Patton understood that the nature of conflict requires that its participants enter into the fray with one goal in mind–To win. If you’re not in it to win, then stay out of the way. You will only become a battlefield casualty that will drain resources in the rest of us being forced to “deal” with your injury. Just as nice guys finish last, nice soldiers die first.

Likewise with those who are so timid in this battle–a battle not just for the land of Palestine, but as we can plainly see now, the soul of the entire human race—that they want to be seen as “nice”. Our goal must be TO WIN. TO LIBERATE OUR LAND AND SAVE OUR PEOPLE. I want to know where are all the good Palestinian fighters around the World who came out by the scores earlier this year when Gaza was being massacred? What happened to them all? Do you need pictures of children’s body parts splattered all over TV screens to come out and defend the Palestinian cause? Of course my hat off to all who are working to advance the struggle to total liberation.

Remember  the Mossad motto: ‘By Way of Deception, thou shalt do War’.  It is (or at least SHOULD BE) now obvious to all that our enemies have no respect for the notion of “fighting nice”.

Neither should we.

Dr. Hesham Tillawi

Current issues with Hesham Tillawi can be viewed Live every Thursday at 6:30 PM Central Standard Time on Cox Cable system Channel 15 in Louisiana as well as Live on the Internet at www.currentissues.tv and can be contacted at Tillawi@currentissues.tv. The show is also broadcast on Bridges TV via cable, satellite, and broadband and on Amazonas satellite World Wide. Current Issues. the radio show airs live around the World on Broadband and shortwave 5.050 and many stations around the U.S. every Saturday 4-6 PM Central Time on www.republicbroadcasting.org.

By: Jeff Gates

In unconventional warfare, manipulated beliefs are used to displace inconvenient facts. When waging war by way of deception, false beliefs are an oft-deployed weapon.

Recall Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda? Iraqi mobile biological weapons laboratories? Iraqi meetings in Prague with Al Qaeda? Iraqi purchases of yellowcake uranium from Niger?

All these claims were reported as true. All were later proven false or, worse, fabricated. Yet all were widely believed. Only the yellowcake uranium was conceded as bogus before the invasion of Iraq. As the U.S. crafted its response to the provocation of a mass murder on U.S. soil, those widely shared beliefs shaped a consensus to wage war on a nation that had no hand in it.

A similar deception—traceable to the same source—is now working to expand this war to Iran. Based on fast-emerging events, the next conflict could include Pakistan.

The modern battlefield has shifted. Ground warfare is now secondary. Likewise air strikes, combat troops, naval support and even covert operations. Those physical operations are all downstream of information operations. Manipulated beliefs come first. Psyops precede bombs and bullets. Hardware ranks a distant third.

First and foremost are the consensus shapers and thought manipulators who target perceptions and opinions until a critical mass of agreement is reached. Then comes war. Those skilled at such duplicity induced coalition troops to war in Iraq. Knowledge was their target. Manipulate thought and all else was downstream.

Unconventional warfare is waged “upstream” with the assistance of those with the means, motive and opportunity to massage consensus opinion. Where are modern-day battles fought? Not on the ground nor in the air nor on the seas.

The mindset is the primary theater of operations. The first battlefield is the public’s shared field of consciousness. The death and destruction come later.

Deceit is not new to warfare. What’s new is the reach of the technologies—including modern media technologies—that now enable deception on a global scale

Military action remains subordinate to politics. Politics, in turn, are subordinate to those skilled at inducing consensus beliefs. Regardless whether command is civilian or military, decision-making is no better than the information on which decisions depend. That’s why the Israel lobby has long targeted U.S. lawmakers as a strategic force-multiplier by the Israel lobby. [See: “How Israel Controls U.S.” http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=124829&d=24&m=7&y=2009]

With lawmaking dependent on information, those skilled at the manipulation of knowledge can operate atop the chain of command. As a system of law reliant on informed choice, democracy can be dislodged in plain sight by those skilled at inducing a shared mindset—a consensus—by manipulating thought, belief and emotion.

Thus the strategic motivation for media dominance by the Masters of Deceit in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., Germany, India and other key nations that comprise the “coalition of the willing” induced to invade Iraq. Overlay media ownership with member states of this coalition and a common undisclosed bias becomes apparent.

When coordinated across four key areas, such “Information Operations” can displace informed decision-making with an undisclosed agenda. In retrospect, that systemic duplicity explains how the U.S. was deceived to lead this coalition to war in the Middle East. Here’s a brief look at each area: geopolitical, strategic, operational and tactical.

Duplicity in Plain Sight

The geopolitical realm is where the “framing” of future conflicts often first emerges. The Clash of Civilizations appeared in 1993 as an article in Foreign Affairs. When this premise was published as a book in 1996, more than 100 non-governmental organizations were prepared to promote its thematic conflict-of-opposites.

That agreed-to consensus facilitated the seamless transition from the Cold War to a perpetual Global War on Terrorism. Thus the fate of the post-Cold War “peace dividend.”

This widely shared mindset emerged just as A Clean Break appeared in print with its proposal for removing Saddam Hussein as part of a Colonial Zionist strategy for “securing the realm”—an expanded Greater Israel. Richard Perle, then a member of the U.S. Defense Policy Board, led the All-Ashkenazi team who prepared that 1996 report for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2001, Perle became chairman of the Pentagon’s policy board. Strategically, that’s a good example of working “upstream” to frame U.S national security issues around a preset agenda—for a foreign nation. Perle left the Board in February 2004 after 17 years of wielding insider influence. When your numbers are small but your ambitions large, what choice do you have but to wage war by way of deception?

Strategically, to evoke a new global war required a plausible Evil Doer linked to a credible provocation. The branding of the Taliban did not emerge in the “field” until March 2001 with their destruction of the ancient Buddhas at Bamiyan. Widely portrayed in mainstream media as a “cultural Holocaust,” that high-profile deed put Afghanistan’s previously obscure Taliban on a global Top-Ten list as certifiably evil.

The missing piece in marketing The Clash premise: the mass murder of September 11, 2001. Strongly provoked emotions, as with 9-11, facilitate the displacement of facts with what a targeted mindset can be induced to believe. That process was enhanced by the presence of a pre-staged Evil Doer and pre-staged intelligence that was flawed, false or outright fixed—but nevertheless widely reported as fact by mainstream media.

The capacity to succeed with such an operation is enhanced by the combined presence of: (a) evocation (images of religious extremism), (b) provocation (a mass murder), (c) association (a Doer of Evil), and (d) manipulation—as mainstream media parroted phony intelligence with virtually no investigative journalism.

This psyops campaign was facilitated by plausibly credible political leaders who dutifully read their lines from fear-evoking scripts written by this same insider network of agenda-shapers. That emotional manipulation included not only the “Axis of Evil” framing but also a widely broadcast WMD sound bite: “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

Mainstream media even reported as credible false accounts of “high-level links” between the secular Iraqi government and the religious fundamentalists of Al Qaeda. Yet anyone familiar with the region knew they despised each other. Truth was not the point. Nor facts. Informed consent was only an obstacle to overcome.

Deception on such a scale required a capacity to sustain a veneer of plausibility and credibility – i.e., believability. Thus the critical role played by mainstream media.

The Power of Association

When waging war on the public’s shared mindset, the power of association is one of the most effective weapons. Thus the potent imagery of the peaceful Buddhas at Bamiyan when associated with destruction, violence and religious extremism.

Thus the ease with which evil doing Al Qaeda extremists were associated in the American mindset with the Taliban – and the evil of 9-11 with known Evil Doer Saddam Hussein even though the intelligence was proven false.

Thus too the associative impact of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 2003 testimony before the U.N. Security Council. His credibility as a globally recognizable military leader (the Powell “brand”) was deployed—as a weapon—to lend the appearance of truth to lies about Iraq’s possession of mobile biological weapons.

Akin to showcasing the celebrity endorsement of a consumer product, this testimonial by a trusted military leader was broadcast worldwide in the lead-up to war. Powell was not the only “mark” in this operation. So were the U.N., the U.S. military and a global public. Both aggressor and aggrieved became casualties of this duplicitous “field-based” warfare. Meanwhile the source of this deception once again faded into the background.

Operationally, by the time the U.S. was induced to invade Iraq, 100-plus Israeli Mossad agents had been operating in Mosul for more than a decade. Soon after the invasion, several moderate clerics were murdered. Their elimination enhanced the capacity to provoke a conflict-of-opposites between long-warring Shias and Sunnis.

That conflict-within-a-conflict helped catalyze an insurgency that converted a clash into a quagmire. That result was mathematically model-able by an Israeli cadre of game theory war-planners. [See: “How Israel Wages Game Theory Warfare.” http://intifada-palestine.com/2009/08/20/how-israel-wages-game-theory-warfare/ ]

As Information Operations proceed at the geopolitical, strategic and operational level, tactical deceit and misdirection provide essential support akin to reserve forces deployed on an as-needed basis. Serial provocations are required to sustain the serial conflicts essential to maintain the faux plausibility of the mega-theme: The Clash.

The recurring use of crises to catalyze and maintain instability should be of immediate concern to Islamabad. A long-standing Indo-Israel alliance may well be coordinating the frequency of violent incidents that continue to strain relationships between nuclear-armed Pakistan and its neighbor Iran.

Reflecting similar tactics, the most recent Israeli assault on Gaza was scheduled between Christmas 2008 and the January 2009 inauguration of a new U.S. commander-in-chief elected on a platform of hope and a promise of change. The timing of that murderous incursion minimized the capacity to criticize. President-elect Obama said nothing.

Meanwhile this serial agent provocateur set the stage with that assault for another delayed reaction from those brutalized by six decades of occupation. And from those in the broader Muslim community outraged at the U.S. for enabling this behavior.

When that reaction emerges—as it will—Tel Aviv will again assert the moral high ground as a perennial victim living in a hostile anti-Semitic neighborhood. By deploying U.S. weaponry, Israeli aggression will again make Americans appear guilty by association—endangering the U.S. while enhancing the plausibility of the narrative: The Clash of Civilizations.

The uncomfortable truth is that the U.S. is guilty—for continuing to condone this treachery—to its own detriment. Meanwhile the only change is in the presidency with no substantive change in U.S.-Israeli policies. And no hope for those most affected by this duplicity—including both the U.S. military and those it was induced to target.

As critics of Israeli policy in Gaza emerged in academia, the Anti-Defamation League and its international network mounted an intimidation campaign to silence a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. By advertising that campaign widely, the ADL silenced thoughtful academics worldwide. [See: “Treason in Plain Sight?” http://criminalstate.com/2009/07/treason-in-plain-sight/ and “Education: The Ultimate Battlefield” http://criminalstate.com/2009/08/education-–-the-ultimate-battlefield/]

By Way of Deception

To succeed, Information Operations require both deceit and denial of access to the facts required for informed consent. How else can anyone explain the enduring perception that Israel is a democracy? Even now, a majority of Americans believe that Israel is an ally despite more than six decades of nonstop deceit, spying, treachery and ongoing treason.

Any observer of recent events in Pakistan should be concerned at the duplicitous history of those who have an “existential” stake in sustaining The Clash storyline. With any semblance of stability, an investigation will confirm that the intelligence fixed to induce the U.S. to war originated with a transnational network of pro-Israeli operatives.

Democracy assumes that all of us collectively are smarter than any of us individually. Thus the need for an educated electorate informed by an unbiased media providing the facts required to reason together.

Thus too the strategic need to dominate mainstream media by those with an undisclosed bias who are skilled at waging war by way of deception. We now see portrayed in that opinion-shaping domain a world turned inside out where the victim is cast as aggressor and the predator as prey.

The facts in the recent Goldstone Report confirm a need to investigate dozens of Israeli war crimes in Gaza as well as crimes against humanity. Instead of following the facts wherever they lead—consistent with the rule of law—on November 3^rd, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 334-36 in favor of a resolution describing the report as “irredeemably biased” and opposing any further consideration.

That resolution was proposed by Howard Berman, Ashkenazim chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, senior Republican on the panel and also Ashkenazim. Meanwhile Nita Lowey, the Ashkenazim chairwoman of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee warned, by implication, that her colleagues in the Congress would jeopardize funding for their projects if “further consideration” was given to the Goldstone Report.

The House vote came one day before the U.N. General Assembly discussed the report. A day later, on November 5^th, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, a Muslim, killed 13 and wounded 29 preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Within 24 hours, more than 250 media personnel appeared at Fort Hood, the nation’s largest military base, to report on the event.

Many of them framed the event as confirming The Clash premise and even the on-base presence of “Islamo-fascism.” Suggesting the act of a “home-grown terrorist,” Jewish-Zionist Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, called for Congressional hearings into whether the U.S. military could have prevented it.

Interviewed in Palestine, the grandfather of U.S.-born and educated psychiatrist Nidal Hasan spoke of his grandson’s love of the U.S. and said simply, “America made him what he is.” While that comment hardly excuses this conduct, that poignant statement includes a point that Americans find difficult to contemplate. Yet we also found it uncomfortable to consider that the U.S.-Israeli relationship was a key motivation behind 9-11 and other attacks on Americans and American facilities.

The Goldstone Report called for an investigation of facts suggesting criminal conduct both by Israelis and Palestinians. Written by an eminent South African Jewish jurist, Richard Goldstone’s daughter conceded that her father’s findings would have been far harsher had he not been a Zionist.

Yet even the possibility that unfavorable facts could seep into the “field” required that the Israel lobby unleash its compliant Congressional forces in a litmus test of legislative loyalty—regardless of the facts. Or, indeed, because of the facts. It’s difficult to imagine a vote more clearly indicative of how a pro-Israeli bias has corrupted the rule of law.

Other disturbing facts also posed a danger of gaining traction, including a November 5th report that the International Atomic Energy Agency found “nothing to be worried about” in Iran’s recently revealed uranium enrichment site. That fact was preemptively displaced from the “field” the day before with reports of a well-timed Israeli boarding of a ship in international waters where weapons were found that were allegedly bound for Iran-supported Hezbollah.

When waging field-based warfare, timing is everything. That’s particularly the case when, as here, a belief-manipulating adversary is faced with the greatest danger of its six decade life: facts that conflict with the narrative required to sustain The Clash storyline.

Best Story Wins

With consensus beliefs the upstream target, democracy becomes the downstream casualty. When manipulated beliefs displace facts, the rule of law degenerates into a faith-based parody of self-governance. To protect the informed consent essential to freedom requires that those waging war on the public’s shared mindset become transparent so that those complicit can be made apparent.

How old is this form or warfare? Answer: How long has behavior been manipulated with beliefs? How long has faith been deployed to displace facts? The form of warfare is ancient; only the means are modern.

Upstream warfare and strategic deceit are only “unconventional” for the target. For Jewish extremists, such duplicity is business-as-usual.

This analysis describes how warfare is waged in plain sight in the Information Age. Without the complicity of mainstream media, this deceit could not have succeeded on such a scale.

In the Information Age, duplicity is how treason can be taken to scale—in plain view and, to date, with legal impunity—both in the U.S. and in the coalition member nations whose citizens were also targeted by those chronicled in this account.

The common source of this deceit remains little known either to the American public or the people in those nations the U.S. led to war. Here in the U.S., the tattered remnants of our system of informed consent are held hostage by this media-induced duplicity—and by legislators more inclined to protect their personal interests than the national interest.

There lies the strategic role for online media free of conspiracy theories that obscure the analytical clarity required to wage this battle with confidence. What’s described here is warfare being waged on knowledge by an enemy within. Liberty faces no greater danger than those targeting its foundation of informed consent.

What has been made of the U.S. due to our “special relationship” with this extremist enclave is not the form of governance to which our civilian and military leaders swore their allegiance. With our civilian leadership compromised by the Israel lobby, to whom do U.S. military leaders owe their allegiance—to this latest in a series of corrupted presidencies or to the people whose freedom they took an oath to protect from all enemies, both foreign and domestic?

Despite appearances, it is not America that is at war in the Middle East but Americans loyal to this nation who were sent to war by a foreign government imbedded inside what remains of “our” government.

With trans-generational premeditation, Ashkenazim elites and extremists lured the U.S. into an entangled alliance in order to manipulate Americans to wage their expansionist wars and to secure their “realm.” Only as the common source of this treason became transparent could those complicit now be held accountable.

For Americans to restore the fact-based rule of law requires sustained pressure from abroad. Our true allies will hold us accountable for what we allowed these extremists to do in our name. As the how of this treason becomes transparent, we Americans will see as our true enemies those who enabled this duplicity—to our long-term detriment. The best way to befriend us is to hold us true to the values we espouse.

Jeff Gates

Jeff Gates: A widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide, Jeff Gates’ latest book is Guilt By Association—How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008). His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. For two decades, an adviser to policy-makers worldwide. Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee (1980-87)

For more: www.criminalstate.com

Where might another McVeigh—or worse—spring from?

The many fringe elements the Republican Party represents are angry they lost and getting more threatening and dangerous to society every day.  Right-wing tea-partiers, death panellers, birthers, skinheads, white supremacists, militia enthusiasts, paranoid fringe, and even average citizens who are encouraged by the rants of right-wing talk radio and Fox News are more than restless, they’re bordering on dangerous.

The Anti-Defamation League is tracking about 200 militias, up from 50 in 2002, according to Mark Pitcavage, the ADL’s director of fact finding. “The single greatest factor in the agitation is Obama, Pitcavage says, adding “I see so many parallels today with 1994.”

Billy Roper, the head of White Revolution, a fast-growing white-nationalist group, says, “For years, white Americans were just concerned with watching sports and drinking beer and being consumers,” Roper said. “They were like bad puppies. Obama is like the rolled up newspaper smacking their butt. And now they’re baring their teeth. We’re at the stage kind of like the original 13 colonies around 1760. We’re at that awkward stage of the revolution when it’s too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the bastards.”

Ammunition manufacturers can’t keep up with the demand, the exaggerations become more outrageous on a daily basis.

Read more here.

How bad do you think it is now?  Will it get worse?  How can it be controlled?

fnord