"Peace group" to mark Pearl Harbor Day with "Pearl Harbor Truth" events, host anti-Elie Wiesel talk

It turns out that the Pacifica Forum, the University of Oregon "peace group" which just hosted a Holocuast denial, anti-Israel conference in honor of Kristallnacht (read here), is trying to one-up themselves in the marketing of bigotry as peace activism.

According to the Pacifica Forum schedule (read here) they are following up last weekend's conference featuring Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review, and this week's talk about Kristallnacht by Pacifica Forum leader Orval Etter, with a talk called "Elie Wiesel's HATE", which it describes as an "analysis of the doctrine of hate enunciated by the Nobel Peace Laureate".

After that the "peace group" will commemorate the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor with a video presentation concerning "Pearl Harbor Truth" by "Gregory Douglas", a "9/11 truth" advocate, JFK conspiracy theorist, forger of historical documents, and promoter of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

"Gregory Douglas", apparently a pseudonym for someone who has called himself Norwood Burch, Peter Stahl, Brian Harring and countless other names, is associated with the Holocaust denial publication the Barnes Review, for whom he has written and produced audio tapes. "Douglas" has had such a checkered career in Holocaust denial that associates such as David Irving and Mark Weber now condemn him as a charlatan. (Their debunking of "Douglas" is so voluminous that it would take a month to read in its entirety. A taste of their views of Douglas' absurdly consistent career can be sampled -- from Irving here and here (index of 15 documents), and from Weber here and here. Amusingly, "Douglas" borrowed another pseudonym, "Karl Kolcheck", from an old TV series as the byline for a rebuttal of these charges (read here). That's more than enough to get a taste of the absurdity of a debate among professional promoters of falsehoods over what's true. They seem to take almost as much pleasure in promoting hatred of each other as in promoting hatred of Jews. WARNING -- THESE LINKS GO TO HOLOCAUST DENIAL WEBSITES.)

The Southern Poverty Law Center, whom I prefer over Irving, Weber and "Kolcheck" as a source, provides this description of "Douglas" in action promoting "9/11 truth" at the Barnes Review conference in Washington D.C. (read here):

And then there was one "Gregory Douglas," with his top-secret German document proving conclusively the Bush Administration and Israel knew about and likely orchestrated the attacks. "Israel is always involved in everything!" he said.
That certainly got the attention of the attendees. Except, as a sheepish Bill White noted on his "libertarian socialist" website later (White had initially hailed the document as revelatory), it turns out that Douglas is an accused forger.
Veteran European journalist Gitta Sereny has written that Douglas forged a document that he told her was proof that the Americans and British had helped two Nazi war criminals escape Europe in 1945. Douglas' later book on one of them, Gestapo boss Heinrich Muller, was, she wrote, "filth" that was as "fake" as the earlier document.

(A pdf of the Barnes Review's conference report listing Douglas' presentation on "9/11 truth" and advertising for sale both his audio tape on that subject, and his book of JFK conspiracy theories, is available here. Amazon offers Douglas' book, "REGICIDE The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy", for sale here.)

In case you think that "Douglas" is a harmless amusing nutter, read the following. The Barnes Review website contains a veiled threat to burn a synagogue signed with one of the pseudonyms used by "Douglas" (read here WARNING-- HOLOCAUST DENIAL SITE):

"In passing, I note that a Rabbi in Seattle demanded that the local airport remove Christmas trees from its building unless they put up Jewish religious symbols as well. ... One also hopes that his synagogue is fireproof. Brian Harring"

It's ironic in light of the accusations against him that "Gregory Douglas" is said to be the author (under one of his countless pseudonyms) of Fakes & Frauds of the Third Reich (pictured below).




The school of thought which "Douglas" is slated to represent at the Pacifica Forum is best summarized by the phrase "Pearl Harbor was an inside job". Proponents of this view frequently promote the myth that FDR knew of the attack before it happened but prevented appropriate defensive measures from being taken. His purported motive? To provide an excuse to enter the war against Nazi Germany at the behest of the Jewish lobby. I suspect that is the view "Gregory Douglas" espouses, although I have not seen his video. I presume that Pacifica Forum purchased it from Barnes Review or some similar group and I frankly do not feel comfortable supporting them with my cash.

There's more to come soon on the background of Professor Orval Etter's Pacifica Forum and how it has brought the extreme left and extreme right together to promote hatred of Israel and Jews. In the next installment: Etter's connection to the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a respected national interfaith peace group; and Alison Weir's connection to Pacifica Forum. Also: what does the administration of University of Oregon know about Pacifica Forum and why do they allow it to use university facilities to promote hate groups?