Monday, November 5, 2007

"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Pearl Harbor Truth" by "Gregory Douglas", a "9/11 truth" advocate, JFK conspiracy theorist, forger of historical documents, and promoter of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.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).

http://www.vho.org/GB/c/GR/SD1.jpg


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?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vfptalk/message/4250
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vfptalk/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vfpdiscussion/?yguid=216772746
http://f9g.yahoofs.com/groups/g_9375896/.HomePage/__sr_/4039.jpg?grAM6MHBdN95BukU
"Itaq, Palestine: One Resistance."
--- In vfptalk@yahoogroups.com, "Gordon Sturrock" gs@... wrote:

Here is Jack Dresser's latest article in response to Mark Weber's talk at
Pacifica Forum in Eugene. Jack wrote the article last week, only now getting
around to posting it. As Jack expected, Weber stuck to some run of the mill
historical stuff and avoided the controversial issues that were expected by
many critics.
The hate that was being spewed against Jack from two misguided and severely
misinformed members of this list was sad and uncalled for.

Gordon


Leaving the Pacifica Forum but not its Original Goals
Jack Dresser & Mariah Leung

Referring to the Pacifica Forum presentation by Mark Weber, a Jewish friend
of mine complained, "I don't need a white racist to tell me about Israel's
racism!" This is among several pejorative descriptors that have been
applied - fairly or unfairly - to this speaker. Whether or not this term
applies to Weber, it may be fairly applied to a small group within the forum
who have invited and funded his visit.

Weber will briefly come and go, but this group is the reason we have
disassociated ourselves from Pacifica after providing many presentations and
films over two years on numerous topics ranging from the illegality of the
Iraq War to racism, impeachment, CIA atrocities, PTSD, war profiteering, and
depleted uranium. And yes, to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and
proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Founded by pacifist Orval Etter, the forum was devoted to the goals of peace
and justice. We valued the forum as a community peace organization that went
conceptually beyond signs and bumper stickers and was uniquely attentive to
deeper forces behind world events. Quite importantly, it has been the only
local organization willing to touch the third rail of American liberal
politics - Israel's land seizures and subjugation of the Palestinians.

A small group of attendees with a "white separatist" preoccupation were
attracted to the forum and started attending regularly. While never part of
forum sessions, emailed views about "race-mixing," "blood consciousness,"
"miscegenation that tears down civilization and pollutes good races," and
"the genocidal war against our own race" began to proliferate.

These familiar echoes from the Jim Crow South ironically mirror the Zionism
they oppose, but Orval declined to exclude them from programming decisions.
As advocates for peace, justice and human rights, we could not afford to
have our reputations associated and our work potentially compromised by
conflation in the public mind with these viewpoints.

We have learned from Palestinian human rights advocates that their
organizations throughout the country have been infiltrated and corrupted by
people holding these worldviews, perhaps sincerely held, perhaps as agent
provocateurs planted to discredit critics of Israel. They distort valid
critiques of Israeli policies into ideas that can justifiably be labeled
"anti-Semitism" - although we reject simplistic name-calling of that kind.
Here, they have stated that they don't care about the Palestinians, just
their own "European white race," thus pursuing agendas entirely different
than ours.

Returning to Weber, I would have preferred that he address a "historic"
topic of no immediate importance with which he has been previously
associated, rather than the Israel lobby which is a legitimate, extremely
important topic that urgently deserves our close attention. Critical
analysis of the Israel lobby should not be dismissed with the timeworn
accusation of "anti-Semitism" based upon the tarnished reputation of a
presenter. We fear this may be the result of Weber's visit.
In contrast, we recently attended a presentation in Portland by two highly
respected academics on the same topic. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt of
the University of Chicago and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
authored a 2006 paper in the London Review of Books and a 2007 New York
Times best-seller on "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy."

They cite 1997 and 2005 surveys of Congress that both rank the principal
Israel lobby, AIPAC, first in power among lobbies attempting to influence
American foreign policy (and second overall).

These authors describe the lobby's very effective methods of controlling
Congress, the Executive Branch and the media. And they describe
consequences often detrimental to American interests.

They cite a State Department report that "citizens in (Arab and Muslim)
countries are genuinely distressed at the plight of the Palestinians and at
the role they perceive the United States to be playing," state that "the
United States has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely
allied with Israel," and cite the 9/11 Commission finding that "bin Laden
explicitly sought to punish the United States for its policies in the Middle
East."

They document pressure from Israel and its lobby as a "critical" and
arguably decisive element in bringing about the Iraq War, and report a
"pervasive" belief in the U.S. intelligence community that "Israel and the
(pro-Israel) neoconservatives conspired to get the United States into a war
with Iraq" although "no one mentions it" due to "fear of being labeled an
anti-Semite."

And now Israel and its lobby are pressing for a U.S. attack on Iran. We had
better start paying attention, whether or not we like every messenger.


Jack Dresser, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist, is co-founder of Lane County
Veterans for Peace, a former Army psychologist during the Vietnam War, and a
former columnist for the Springfield News where one of his columns was
reprinted in the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs. Mariah Leung
has established the Al-Nakba Awareness Project to increase Americans'
understanding of the other side of Israel's foundation: the Palestinian
"catastrophe."



*************************************************************************
Squadron13 Aviation Museum
& Flights of Thought on War and Politics - http://www.squadron13.com

founder- Veterans Against Torture
http://www.VeteransAgainstTorture.com

member: Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace


"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

--- End forwarded message ---

Julius Martov said...

More on "Brian Harring"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/12/18359/8939
UPDATE: TBRNews and the Real "Brian Harring"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/4/15748/99064
WARNING: Beware the "Voice from the White House"

BHCh said...

Interesting. Nothing new though.

German Nazis also belonged to a "peace group" - or so they claimed. After all Goebbels claimed that all they wanted was peace and that it were the nasty Jews that started WWII. And technically they were a left-wing socialist workers party as well...

You got a link from David Irving by the way.

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