Aspen Times publishes anti-Semitic diatribe

Last year, I posted about a "peace activist" and "9/11 truth" advocate named Steve Campbell who tried to broadcast a Holocaust denial video on his local public access cable channel in Aspen, Colorado. The gist of the video, called "Judea Declares War on Germany, is Jews bad, Nazis good. He got the video from a distributor of neo-Nazi videos and literature who claims to have a network of people broadcasting his material on public access stations around the country. (Read here and here and here and here and here and here.) The station in Aspen wisely decided not to broadcast the Nazi propaganda.

Not nearly as wise is the Aspen Times. They've decided to publish an anti-Semitic diatribe written by the very confused Mr. Campbell. Their reasoning? They claim Campbell's letter begins a debate over plans by a local citizen to commemorate the Holocaust. Bennett A. Bramson of Snowmass, Colorado, stated in a letter to the Aspen Times (read here) :

Amongst my other activities, I now have two new missions in life, which I hope others will step up to join me in fulfilling:

1). Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley should have an annual community Holocaust commemoration on Yom Hashoah (unless on Shabbat), which I will gladly organize and serve as presenter, moderator or facilitator (at no cost), and;

2). We need to raise the money for a community Holocaust Memorial.

In response to this commendable wish, the editors of the Aspen Times saw fit to publish the following:

"Beginning a debate":

Regarding the May 3 (The Aspen Times and Aspen Daily News) by Bennett A. Bramson: Mr. Bramson, Jesus Christ had you and your ilk pegged about 2,000 years ago.

“‘I know your tribulation and your poverty, (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.’” — Revelation 2:9

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” — Matthew 23:27-28

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” — John 8:44

“Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” — Matthew 23:32-33

In his video, “Cole in Auschwitz,” David Cole states: “This tape is the first in a series of tapes covering my September 1992 trip to Europe to investigate first-hand the sites of the alleged “Final Solution.” It is by no means intended to be the last word on the Holocaust controversy, but just the opposite: I hope this tape can begin an open debate that’s long overdue. … What is fact, and what is simple wartime propaganda regarding the event we have come to know as the Holocaust.”

By the way, Cole (a Jew) later recanted after threats from the Zionist thought police.

Steve Campbell
Glenwood Springs

I really don't know why the Aspen Times sees fit to publish this sort of hateful attack on Jews and Judaism. It does nothing to further the "debate" over Mr. Bramson's wish to commemorate the Holocaust. The "debate" is entirely of the Aspen Times' manufacture. Maybe they would like to elucidate their rationale for manufacturing such a debate and for publishing this gratuitous hate speech. If you wish to ask them personally, the publisher of the Aspen Times can be emailed here.

Personally, I believe that most of the citizens of Aspen, and maybe even Campbell's freiends in the "Roaring Fork Peace Coalition", don't give a roaring fork what Campbell has to say. But for some reason, the editors of the local paper continue to give him a forum to promote hate. They should stop.

UPDATE:

In 2006, the Aspen Times published an anti-Semitic letter from Campbell. This letter is still online here at the website of the Glenwood Post Independent, a sister publication of the Aspen Times . Warning: the letter features links to hate websites.

Campbell is also apparently working to publicize the writing of notorious anti-Semitic polemicist Ted Pike (read here and here).

Among Campbell's supporters are conspiracy nut David Icke (read here), neo-Nazi organization Stormfront (read here), and white supremacist Curt Maynard (read here).

"Citizens for 9/11 Truth" vs. the Jews

Here's the latest from Steve Campbell, the founder and leader of "Citizens for 9/11 Truth" in the Aspen, Colorado area and a former leader of the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition. You may remember that he recently attempted to broadcast a Holocaust denial "documentary" on public access television. (read here) The board of the station wisely refused to allow him to do so, after an extensive public hearing, basing their decision on the fact that the program was hate speech. Campbell, who has a long history of promoting anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories has, in response, published a long diatribe against Jews and Zionists in the Aspen Daily News. If anyone has any doubt about the connection between anti-Semitic conspiracy theory and "9/11 truth", read this from a leader of one of their groups.

Here is Campbell's letter, from Aspen Daily News | Aspen, Colorado:

Letter to the Editor -

Mon 11/19/2007 09:00PM MST

Editor:

Alan Feldman, speaking for the board of directors of Grassroots TV, in his recent letter, (Nov. 12, “A new policy at Grassroots), states: “In fact, we would like the community to know that the proponent of the film in question (me) had been asked to come on the station and produce a civil, dialogue-based show that debates whatever issues he would like debated. He, however, rejected this opportunity; even after members of the board generously offered to underwrite the costs to produce this program.”

This is simply not true. I have never yet communicated to the board in any form that I rejected their offer. To say so is misleading and dishonest.

Feldman says: “After this prescreening (of “Judea Declares War on Germany), it seemed readily apparent to the board that this film presented patently inflammatory and obscene subject matter.” Oh, I did not see anything inflammatory or obscene. What I saw was evidence presented in a matter of fact way. Who is to be the judge? A board of directors who is mainly Jewish? And a board meeting packed with mostly Jewish reactionaries?

What could the reason be they don’t want information getting out to the general public? Obviously, if there is overwhelming evidence to support their version of the Holocaust history, they needn’t be worried about the introduction of the revisionist version. Everyone watching would just laugh at the presentation. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that this has nothing whatsoever to do with hate, and everything to do with an attempt to hide the truth. After all, you wouldn’t want indoctrinated and brainwashed Jews and “Christian” Zionists to learn that 6 million Jews were not deliberately murdered in concentration camps. According to the best information available, approximately 300,000 people died during the war in all the concentration camps from all causes. And the vast majority of those were from disease.

You wouldn’t want everyone to know that Auschwitz had a post office, a medical clinic, dental care, a theater, a symphony made up of inmates, a swimming pool, a brothel, a library and organized soccer games.

The film in question claims that there were no gas chambers used to kill anyone. This is backed up by logic and a ton of evidence, which you are afraid might get out to the public and thereby destroy the defining image of the Holocaust; that is, gas chambers. And then where would the great sympathy for the poor Jews be? And where would they ever have found the moral backing for the establishment of the state of Israel and for their ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, Iraqis, Lebanese and soon to be Iranians?

You don’t want your fellow Jews to learn that the Zionists and Hitler were in collusion and that the vast majority of the suffering of the Jewish people during World War II can be directly attributed to the Zionists who were willing to sacrifice their “lesser brethren” so that the state of Israel would become a reality.

What you, Mr. Feldman, have turned Grassroots TV into is a gatekeeper of information, not a protector of community standards. The integrity of Grassroots TV has been sacrificed because of your lame excuse of a decision based on phony allegations of hate and obscenity. You and the board and anyone else who supports your decision is afraid of a fair presentation of evidence with the ability to lay out all the facts of the matter. That’s why you support locking people up who might destroy the Holocaust myth. It just wouldn’t do, now would it? It might upset your plans for world domination and enslavement of the rest of humanity.

Wake up, everyone. You have been taken for a ride and if the Zionists have their way, it will be straight to hell.

Steve Campbell
Glenwood Springs

The hateful, lunatic aspect of this conspiracy theory is readily apparent. It is the same sort of belief in an overarching international Jewish conspiracy that motivated the White Russians, Nazis, neo-Nazis, Christian Identity movement, Islamists and other promoters of hatred of Jews.

The "9/11 truth" must disassociate itself from this lunatic world view. If they fail to do so, they lend credence to the charge that their conspiracy theories depend on having a scapegoat on which to pin their charges. Without the scapegoat, where would their movement be?

Racist Website "Gamed" Aspen Daily News Poll on Holocaust Denial

The racist website Newsnet14.net "gamed" an Aspen Daily News poll concerning whether a Holocaust denial TV show should be aired on a local cable station. (Read about that controversy here and here and here and here).

The request to air the Holocaust denial program came from Steve Campbell, a former member of the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition and founder of Citizens for 9/11 Truth. For a number of years, Campbell programmed a film series sponsored by the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition that was accused of promoting anti-Semitism. Campbell apparently purchased the TV program from Mark Farrell, a neo-Nazi video distributor and publisher from Cincinnati who disseminates Nazi and racist themed DVDs for broadcast on public access stations. The broadcast was supported by Roaring Fork Peace Coalition board member Sue Gray, who blogs under the appropriate name "reckless G".

Multiple votes can be cast in such polls using a variety of simple techniques (such as deleting cookies or using software to change IP addresses) to defeat protections against "gaming" or deliberately skewing poll results. To read the solicitation for racists to vote in the poll click the following link. WARNING: link to hate-group website.

Newsnet14.com

Vail Daily Editorial on Holocaust Denial

Vail Colorado Daily News- Commentary: "Hating history"

Aspen’s public-access channel has decided not to allow a man to show a film that denies the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Steve Campbell, founder of a group called “Citizens for 9/11 Truth,” asked GrassRoots TV to air “Judea Declares War on Germany: A Critical Look at World War II,” which features a so-called Australian “scholar” (a professor of Anti-Semitism, perhaps?) who believes the slaughter of six million Jews did not occur.

It’s insane, of course, to even have this discussion. The Holocaust is the most well-documented, clearly understood mass murder in history. Not only have the survivors told their stories, but the Nazis themselves kept extensive records of the evil done in their death camps and by their death squads in the Jewish villages of Eastern Europe.

Campbell may as well be arguing that humans can breath water or that George Washington wasn’t the first president of the United States or that the World Trade Center is still standing.

He says he is being censored, but the decision not to show his pathetic film is not a question of freedom of speech. The best reason for not showing his film is that its premise is a lie.

Would anyone find it educational or even useful to show a film that argued blacks were never kept as slaves and all that history is just a conspiracy to make white Christian Europeans look bad?

The TV station made the decision not to be a platform for falsehood and ignorance made more vile by the fact that its only purpose is to spread hate.

Because those who deny the Holocaust are not scientists trying to wrench some shadowy truth out of our murky past, They are bigots and fools who, for some reason, hate history and want to keep alive the oppression Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, sympathetic Germans and countless others suffered at the hands of the Nazis.

— Matt Zalaznick for the Editorial Board

Aspen channel bans Holocaust-denial film!

Good news from the Vail (Colorado) Daily - News: "GrassRoots TV won’t show movie that denies genocide" by Charles Agar (Aspen Correspondent)

The GrassRoots TV board of directors Monday voted not to air a controversial Holocaust-denial film.

Steve Campbell, founder of Citizens for 9/11 Truth, asked the station to air “Judea Declares War on Germany: A Critical Look at World War II” on Oct. 1.

But after prescreening the film, which casts doubt on the atrocities of the Holocaust, GrassRoots TV board members stopped the airing, pending further debate.

The board held an open forum on the matter Oct. 11 to gauge community reaction.

“The GrassRoots Television board has decided not to air the film ‘Judea declares War on Germany,’” GrassRoots Television board chairman Alan Feldman said in a statement after the board meeting Monday.

“After careful consideration and community input, the board concluded that this film is obscene; repugnant to the generally accepted notion of what is appropriate in our community. Grassroots TV will not allow the station to be used as a vehicle to incite hatred against any group. Grassroots Television will issue a more detailed statement to our community in coming days.”

Feldman promised a board policy in the future: “Our community spoke, and we have given it a lot of rational thinking,” Feldman said. “We have the ability to refuse to air something if we believe it’s obscene.”

Campbell called it a “poor decision.”

“Unfortunately, it shows basically what I and others have tried to say about this whole issue,” Campbell said. “There are those who don’t want you to see this information, and they’ll do anything they can to stop you from watching it. And that’s just what they’re doing.”

Campbell has shown other controversial films on GrassRoots, as well as on Rifle’s public access station, he said.

He called the debate over “Judea Declares War on Germany: A Critical Look at World War II” a matter of “conscious-raising.”

“I just think that it’s a travesty what’s going on,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he is not planning any legal action against GrassRoots but added, “By censoring this film, it’s only going to make people watch it more.”

Campbell said that while he is being censored now, “The truth will come out. It’s just like the grass that grows between the cracks in the sidewalk.”

He said he might try and air the film in another venue, but he was disappointed the large audience in Aspen wouldn’t see it.

“This is part of the beginning of the loss of our freedoms of expression and speech and the dissemination of information just so certain people can maintain their status quo,” Campbell said.

Campbell did not specify whether those people were Zionists, Jews, Freemasons or the Illuminati...

Is "9/11 Truth" Movement Leader Working With Neo-Nazis?

This is a follow-up on my recent post about the "9/11 truth" activist who has been telecasting hateful videos in the Aspen, Colorado area and promoting Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to his friends in the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition ["9/11 "Truth" Movement Leader Stopped From Airing Pro-Nazi TV Show (For Now)].

I've made the disturbing discovery that Steve Campbell, the "9/11 truth activist" in question, is not only telecasting anti-Semitic material on his local public access station, but may, in fact, be working in concert with a neo-Nazi. The neo-Nazi in question, Mark Farrell distributes Nazi and racist videos through a company called "Honest Media Today" in Cincinnati. His oeuvre includes such blood libel propaganda as "Ritual Murder Revisited: The Hidden Cult" and "Human Sacrifice among the Fanatical Hasidic Jews and Other Cults from Ancient Times to the Present", as well as "The Truth about 9-11: How Jewish Manipulation Killed Thousands", "The Hitlerian Homily", and "Rep. Paul Findley Dares to Speak Out--Again--on DVD: A 22-Year Veteran U.S. Congressman Exposes Israel's Lobby". He also promotes material supporting Matt Hale, the racist leader convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal judge. More to the point, Mark Farrell distributes "Judea Declares War on Germany", the Holocaust-denying, Protocols-promoting video produced by the Adelaide Institute which Steve Campbell wants to telecast to his neighbors in Colorado.

Farrell, in an act of support for Campbell, has posted on his blog this request for his supporters to advocate for the telecast of the film. Farrel describes Campbell as his "colleague", and states that Campbell "was previously successful with putting some of my other DVDs ... on public access TV there", adding ominously "as have an increasing number of others across the U.S." Farrel goes on to state that Campbell "wrote to the newspaper there, and had a letter published called "Defending Holocaust Revisionists."

Farrel follows with this pitch:

Grassroots TV is having second-thoughts about allowing this video to be aired. (Legally, they might actually be required, I believe, if they're viewed as public access TV as part of cable; but that doesn't mean they won't fight it.) Please consider writing the Grassroots TV board of directors - DO NOT BE RUDE - and kindly request that they allow this video to be aired in the interest of fair play: Everyone has seen the opposing views from elementary school to college, and many people are curious as to what revisionists believe. PLEASE, take a couple minutes and send these gentlemen a brief letter, asking that they honor our cherished First Amendment rights and allow others to get a glimpse of opposing viewpoints. Thanks for any help with this matter.

He then provides the names and email addresses of the Board of Directors of Grassroots TV and a boilerplate sane-sounding letter, which would certainly be of use to those who might have difficulty composing a sane-sounding letter.

After pondering the thought of neo-Nazis "honor(ing) our cherished First Amendment rights", let's take a sobering look at this. Campbell and his supporters sometimes claim to be peace activists who just wants to publicize a range of opinions in the name of "free speech" and sometimes own up to actually advocating the extremist material they broadcast. These shifting arguments, designed both to confuse debate and appeal to different audiences, appear to be following Farrell's strategy.

Farrell, on his blog, implies knowing Campbell and states that Campbell has already telecast some of his videos on Grassroots TV. He also claims that he has supporters in other areas of the country engaged in similar public access telecasts. This raises several questions:

1) How closely is Steve Campbell working with the neo-Nazi activist Mark Farrell? Why does Farrell refer to Campbell as a "colleague"? Is their connection merely commercial or are they working in concert?

2) According to Farrell, Campbell has already telecast several "Honest Media Today" videos on Grassroots TV. What neo-Nazi material has Campbell already had shown on Grassroots TV? Is Grassroots TV aware that it may already have telecast programs produced and/or distributed by neo-Nazis? Do they have a written policy with respect to the telecast of hate speech or pro-hate group propaganda?

3) Farrel claims to have other "colleagues" acting similarly in other locations. Who and where are they? What have they telecast and what impact has this had?

4) Do Campbell's friends and supporters in the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition (RFPC) know of Campbell's connections with neo-Nazis? Sue Gray, who is on the Board of Directors of the RFPC has seen the Holocaust denial video at the root of the current controversy and expressed support for its telecast and perhaps some of its ideas (I say "perhaps" because her arguments are a bit circular, or at least non-linear, on this point. Her comments to my earlier post on this subject are instructive.) Is she, and are the other board members, aware of the source of this and other videos Campbell has been promoting? Do Gray and the other RFPC board members support the content of this material or not? What actions have they taken in response to Campbell promoting it?

5) Do the Aspen Times, Aspen Daily News and Glenwood Springs Post Independent, who have published letters from Campbell containing Holocaust denial and other anti-Semitic material, know of his neo-Nazi connections? Do they have a policy with respect to publishing hate speech or promoting hate groups?

Campbell has apparently been going down a path from peace advocate to anti-Semite for quite some time. As I previously indicated, he has promoted Holocaust denial in letters to editor of the Aspen Daily News. He has sent anti-Semitic email to his neighbors. He has published letters to the editors of the Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post Independent linking to anti-Semitic websites. He has shown 9/11 conspiracy videos and, possibly, neo-Nazi produced videos, at a public library and on a local TV station. None of this has attracted much attention to Campbell. Only now, with his attempt to telecast the Adelaide Institute Holocaust denial video, has he attracted the attention he perversely desires. Although it is a shame to give Campbell what he wants in that regard, or to give publicity to neo-Nazi propaganda, it would be worse to allow this material to flow unanswered and unacknowledged to an innocent audience. I call upon Steve Campbell, his supporters, and those he has drawn into this mess (including the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition, Grassroots TV, and Aspen Times) to respond to my specific questions and clarify where they stand with respect to his promotion of neo-Nazi propaganda.


I also ask that anyone with information concerning other public access television broadcasts of this sort of material post a comment to this blog. This can be done anonymously.

If you would prefer to contact me via email, send a message to adamhollandblog@yahoo.com .


[CORRECTION 10/13/2007: THE ORIGINAL OF MARK FARRELL'S APPEAL ON BEHALF OF CAMPBELL IS AVAILABLE HERE, ON HIS "HONEST MEDIA TODAY" WEBSITE. ALTHOUGH THE BLOG DVX MEA LVX: an ethno-racialist's blog POSTED FARRELL'S LETTER IN THE FIRST PERSON, WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION OR COMMENT, I CANNOT BE CERTAIN THAT IT WAS POSTED BY FARREL HIMSELF. IT MAY, IN FACT, HAVE BEEN COPIED BY SOMEONE ELSE FROM THE ORIGINAL POSTING. -- A.H.]

9/11 "Truth" Movement Leader Stopped From Airing Pro-Nazi TV Show (For Now)

What possible connection could 9/11 have with the Holocaust? Steve Campbell, who advocates for what he calls "9/11 truth" (which frequently translates to bigoted lies), sees a connection. He sees the history of both 9/11 and the Holocaust as products of a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. Campbell has a track record of posting links to anti-Semitic conspiracy websites on mainstream media sites, in letters such as this one to the Glenwood Springs, Colorado Post Independent. (An identical letter was removed from the Aspen Daily Times website for hate speech content.) He's also published Holocaust denial propaganda in letters to the editor such as this one to the Aspen Daily Times.

Campbell started small, showing videos blaming Jews for 9/11 at his local library. When nobody came to see them, he focused his attention on his local public access / free speech cable channel which he convinced to show several such videos in spite of protests from viewers that they promoted hate. Now Campbell's campaign to spread anti-Semitism under the guise of promoting "9/11 truth" has hit a road bump. He has tried to have an overtly pro-Nazi film called "Judea Declares War on Germany" shown and that has drawn attention to the truth about this "truth" advocate.

After some consideration of whether or not to show the film, the station has declined, pending further discussion. Campbell is now receiving the support of neo-Nazi groups such as the National Alliance (the largest neo-Nazi group in the U.S.) in postings such as this, which has organized a letter writing campaign for the telecast of the pro-Nazi film.


the full story from the Aspen Daily Times: "Holocaust-denial film blocked in Aspen"

A controversial Holocaust-denial film is raising questions about free speech at Grassroots Television, an Aspen community-access station.

Steve Campbell, founder of Citizens for 9/11 Truth, asked the station to air “Judea Declares War on Germany: A Critical Look at World War II” on Monday, but Grassroots board members stopped the screening.

The one-hour program features Dr. Frederick Toben, an Australian and member of the Adelaide Institute, an organization that denies that the Holocaust happened. [NOTE: MORE ON THE ADELAIDE INSTITUTE HERE]

“This film is offensive not only to Jews in the world but to any sensible person,” said Grassroots Executive Director John Masters.

But the question of airing the film he called “like an homage to [Joseph] Goebbels” has stirred a “healthy debate” at the community TV station, Masters said.

“Judea Declares War on Germany” will be pre-empted by an Aspen High School football game and delayed until after an upcoming Grassroots board meeting.

Questioning historical assumptions about the Holocaust brands anyone a “hater,” Campbell said.

“I think there’s a lot of preconceived ideas that have been indoctrinated into people’s minds as to what the Holocaust is all about,” Campbell said. Showing the film would give people an opportunity to decide for themselves, he said.

In the film, Toben says “alleged” concentration camp gas chambers were used to save lives by disinfecting prisoners and that the Holocaust was a fabrication.

“You are not supposed to learn these historical facts, which are contained in this video,” Toben said in the film.

According to the Adelaide Institute website, Toben has faced litigation and is under a federal gag order in Australia.

Campbell delivered the DVD to Grassroots on Thursday and sent board members copies of letters to local newspapers announcing the screening.

In the past, Campbell has aired controversial films on Grassroots TV trying to debunk facts about the Sept. 11 attack. He said he has not run into this problem before.

“John was very defending of Grassroots programming and being able to air just about anything except pornography and obscenity,” Campbell said. “I’d think the board members would look at the Grassroots policies and say that [the film] doesn’t fall into the realm of something that deserves censorship.”

Begun in 1971, Grassroots airs community programs twice for free and charges for additional screenings or special placement, Masters said.

Masters has not had to deny any program before, he said.

“I’ve personally always felt that if you don’t want to watch something, then turn it off.”
Alan Feldman, president of the board of directors at Grassroots, called the film “bigoted” and “historically inaccurate.”

Feldman said the board is not skirting the issue or denying Campbell’s right to air the film, but is giving the issue “tremendous attention.”

“Certainly I think this world would be a much better place if we didn’t have to address issues of bigotry and anti-Semitism,” Feldman said. “But I also welcome the opportunity to address them from an intellectual standpoint.”

MORE HERE AND HERE FROM THE ASPEN POST


UPDATE (10/11/2007 4 pm EST): THE STORY CONTINUES HERE: Is "9/11 Truth" Movement Leader Working With Neo-Nazis?

UPDATE (10/11/2007 8 pm EST): Grassroots TV held a hearing today concerning whether they should air the pro-Nazi video. The Aspen Times reports that 50 people attended, that many people spoke both for and against the broadcast, and that the debate was heated. The Board of Directors are deliberating and have set no date for their decision.