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Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 14:04:44 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Big Brother for Peace
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Big Brother for Peace
<http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6613>
By Ryan Anderson O'Donnell
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 12, 2003
The group at the forefront of the recent anti-war rallies, International
A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is in reality a front
organization designed to further the radical agenda of several extremist
movements from the political Left. Despite the media's assertions to the
contrary, present incarnation of the peace movement, led by ANSWER, is
anything but representative of mainstream America.
ANSWER's steering committee reads like a "Who's Who" of radical political
organizations. The most influential member of ANSWER's steering committee,
Ramsey Clark's pet project known as the International Action Center (IAC),
is considered by many observers to be little more than a communist front
organization for an obscure Stalinist organization known as the World
Workers Party (WWP). Yet, the IAC is not the only member of ANSWER's
steering committee committed to extremist causes. The Korean Truth
Commission and Pastors for Peace are staunch allies of Kim Jong Il and
Fidel Castro, respectively, and both groups continue to support these
murderous regimes' violation of International law. In addition to its role
as a front for the support of totalitarian/communist governments in North
Korea and Cuba, members of ANSWER's steering committee such as the Muslim
Student Association and the Free Palestine Alliance continue to provide
ideological, logistical and financial support for organizations devoted to
the destruction of the state of Israel, including the terrorist group,
Hamas. A comprehensive investigation of the members of ANSWER's steering
committee make it clear that the organization is in actuality one of
Peace's greatest enemies.
Since its inception in the early nineties, Former Attorney General Ramsey
Clark's International Action Center has been documented to be a front
organization for the World Worker's party. While the WWP's history and
support for murderous regimes and bloody crackdowns on
communist/totalitarian dissidents has already been extensively documented
by Front Page Magazine, as well as other several media outlets, through a
deliberate infiltration strategy in which key WWP operatives have assumed
high level positions in Clark's organization, the WWP has been able to
exert tremendous ideological sway over the IAC, and subsequently, ANSWER.
As noted by Kevin Coogan, a contributor to the Hit List who has extensively
investigated the WWP-IAC connection, "it is undeniable that without the
presence of scores of WWP cadre working inside the IAC, the organization,
for all practical purposes would cease to exist."
It was Ramsey Clark's seduction by the WWP that marked the beginning of the
WWP's movement to the forefront of liberal activism. In 1991, the National
Coalition was born out of the ashes of another WWP front organization known
as the People's Anti-War Mobilization (PAM). The WWP's role in the creation
of the National Coalition was immediately made apparent through the
selection of prominent WWP member Monica Moorehead as the head of the new
organization. The National Coalition quickly established its headquarters
in a Manhattan office building adjacent to the offices of Ramsey Clark,
which was already infested with WWP members. Gavriella Gemma, a WWP and
National Coalition coordinator, was a legal secretary in Ramsey's office,
and was allegedly instrumental in bringing Clark into the WWP fold. Clark
quickly fell under the sway of the WWP, and within months was announced as
the organization's official spokesman.
Clark's appointment as National Coalition spokesman marked the beginning of
his alliance with the WWP, an alliance that resulted in the formation of
the International Action Center. Workers' World, the official newspaper of
the WWP announced the creation of the IAC, describing it as a "center of
international solidarity." However, with Clark as its spokesman, and WWP
member Sarah Flounders as its coordinator, IAC was clearly designed to be
the National Coalition's successor as a sanctuary for WWP front groups and
other affiliated organizations, including the National Coalition to Stop
U.S Intervention in the Middle East, the Hati Commission, the Campaign to
Stop Settlements in Palestine, the Commission of Inquiry on the U.S.
Invasion of Panama, the Movement for a People's Assembly, and the
International War Crimes Tribunal (Coogan, p. 3). Brian Becker, member of
the secretariat of the World Workers Party, is now a national co-director
for the IAC. Other WWP members overtly associated with IAC are Sarah Sloan
(youth coordinator), Teresa Gutierrez (co-director) and Gloria La Riva
(correspondent, Workers World.) Of course, IAC WWP members are never
identified as such at ANSWER rallies. Ostensibly, this lack of WWP
identification is because their positions at the IAC are to be the focus of
the rallies. While this may be superficially accurate, one wonders how many
of the anti-war demonstrators at ANSWER events would be pleased to know
their time and donations are aiding a group (WWP) that supported the
Tiananmen Square massacre?
The IAC's formation of the Korea Truth Commission, another ANSWER steering
committee member, provides further evidence of WWP's heavy hand in the
ANSWER coalition. Presumably incorporated to uncover some form of "truth"
about the Korean War, the KTC has proven itself to be little more than a
mouthpiece for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and the
communist nation's lackeys in the IAC and WWP. Once again, the infamous
Ramsey Clark is the organizer behind this entire charade. Under guidance of
Clark's IAC, the KTC has sent eight delegations to the Korean Peninsula in
order to gather "evidence" of war crimes allegedly committed during the
Korean War. These fact-finding delegations unsurprisingly included all of
the usual suspects: Ramsey Clark, Gloria La Riva, and Brian Becker. Most of
these delegations accomplished little more than finding every excuse to
vilify the United States, while praising Kim Jong-Il's North Korea. The
reports filed by these delegations were often short on concrete fact,
choosing instead to spend pages extolling the virtues of the communist
regime in the North. For example, the eighth delegation reported back:
To the visitor, Pyongyang leaves the impression of a clean, modern world
capital. It is a city of two million people with an efficient public
transit system, wide, tree-lined streets, and all the cultural amenities,
hospitals, schools, parks and sports facilities that one would expect to
find in a large metropolis. Industry has been located on the perimeter of
the city to avoid the problem of pollution as much as possible^Åthe people
of Pyongyang present themselves as cultured and purposeful. There is no
sign of vagrancy or homelessness. Instead of billboards with product
advertising, the streets are adorned with posters, banners and inscriptions
exhorting citizens to work together to build a powerful nation.
Anyone familiar with the Pyongyang regime knows such a glowing
representation of the city and its government is inaccurate. However, since
much of the KTC is controlled by Kim Jong-Il's fan club at the WWP and the
IAC, such misrepresentations should come as little surprise.
In fact, at the time of this article's publication, the KTC does not even
have its own website; the IAC has simply devoted a portion of its
Iacenter.org to information on the KTC. While other organizations are
active in the KTC, it is clear that Ramsey Clark and the IAC/WWP alliance
dictate the commission's agenda.
The KTC's flurry of activity in the late nineties culminated with an
International War Crimes Tribunal on U.S. Crimes in Korea, a shameless
travesty that made a mockery of the Tribunal concept. Once again, the WWP
and IAC's fingerprints were all over the tribunal. Sarah Flounders served
as the Tribunals co-chair, while Ramsey Clark appointed himself Chief
prosecutor. Brian Becker was listed as a Tribunal Sponsor, while Sandra
Smith, Gloria La Riva and Anne Becker all led discussion groups related to
the tribunal. Unsurprisingly, with the WWP running the show, the tribunal,
like many of today's anti-war protests, dissolved into an orgy of
anti-Americanism, with little adherence to its stated purpose, the truth.
WWP influenced groups like the IAC and the KTC are not the only members of
ANSWER's steering committee that back rogue dictatorships. Another of
ANSWER's steering committee members, Pastors for Peace (PFP), is partially
funded by the ARCA foundation, an organization devoted to supporting
pro-Castro groups in the United States. In the last decade alone, ARCA has
granted well over one hundred thousand dollars to PFP. According to PFP,
these grants go towards humanitarian relief cargo such as medicine,
computers, and school buses. Of course, PFP fails to note that in Cuba,
everything is owned by the state. And that Castro is the State. So
essentially, PFP is using ARCA's grant money to prop up Castro's worker's
paradise.
Reports from Cuba indicate that the medicine PFP claims has gone directly
to the Cuban people is in fact often sold at the government's "foreigners
only" stores. Since regular Cubans are not allowed to own computers, the
government immediately seizes the machines. As for the school buses donated
by PFP to the Cuban people? Cuban refugees have reported these buses are
now used by the police for raids against anti-Castro dissents.
Not only do these humanitarian shipments aid Castro, but they are also in
flagrant violation of US law. Although the 1992 Cuban Democracy act allows
for private humanitarian donations to Cuba, "appropriate licensing and
inspection procedures must be met by all donors." PFP has repeatedly failed
to follow such procedures, as illustrated in a letter composed by a group
of US Congressmen to the Director of the Office of Foreign Asset controls.
The letter documents PFP's numerous violations of the Cuban embargo,
concluding that "Pastors for Peace has publicly and intentionally violated
the law in an attempt to challenge US policy towards the Castro
dictatorship. If Pastors for Peace was truly the peaceful humanitarian
organization which it claims to be, it would not make its travel and
resources contingent on political posturing, or violently violate the law
and injure customs officials."
In its zeal to bolster Castro's Communist cabal, the PFP has even resorted
to violence in order to defy the Cuban Democracy act. Despite the fact that
the PFP could ship humanitarian goods to Cuba if licensed under the Trading
with Enemies Act , the group has consistently sought out confrontation with
United States authorities. The most violent of these clashes occurred in
1996 when thirty vehicles carrying two hundred activists and three hundred
computers was stopped at the Mexican border by US customs officials. PFP
activists then exited their caravan and attempted to break through the
blockade. A physical confrontation quickly erupted between the Customs
officials and the activists, and although PFP profess adherence to
"non-violent techniques," the melee resulted in serious injuries to four
customs officials, three of which required hospitalization. A single PFP
activist received minor injuries.
PFP has no qualms about placing the health and safety of American citizens
at risk, as demonstrated by its involvement with "biorat." In July of 2001,
Customs Officials seized more than thirty pounds of "biorat" from PFP
activists. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
in Atlanta, "Biorat is not admissible into the United States," because "it
poses a public health risk worldwide." The report cites a "1996 article in
the British medical journal Lancet asserting that the product could easily
cause food-borne disease in people."
Through his sympathizers like Pastors for Peace, Castro continues to export
toxins into the U.S. that could harm the American people. The desire of
Pastors for Peace to smuggle contraband biochemicals into the United States
needs to be scrutinized carefully, especially as our nation remains on
alert against biological and chemical terrorism.
While not directly associated with the WWP or the rogue regimes in North
Korea and Iraq, two other ANSWER Steering Committee members, the Muslim
Student Alliance (MSA) and the Free Palestine Alliance (FPA), continue to
contradict ANSWER's alleged commitment to peace and ending racism. The Free
Palestine Alliance is an outspoken supporter of the intifada, the
Palestinian Uprising that has killed thousands of Israelis. Started by the
Islamic Jihad, the Intifada has been guided by the PLO and strongly
influenced by terrorist organizations like Hamas, which carry out suicide
bombings. While the FPA does not overtly endorse the terrorist elements of
the Intifada, much of the same rancor and anti-Semitism that drives the
Hamas suicide bombers is on display at FPA events. For example, this past
April, ANSWER sponsored a Free Palestine Rally, marchers bore signs reading
" 'Chosen People' : It's Payback Time." The Nation's Liza Featherstone
reported "Some demonstrators' signs bore swastikas and SS symbols [that
while] intended to draw parallels between Hitler and Sharon, [could] easily
[be] construed as pro-Nazi."
While the FPA's support of the Palestinian Intifada, an uprising that has
claimed the lives of thousands of Jewish civilians and will continue to
claim more, is disturbing enough, the Muslim Student Association has
indirectly contributed to numerous terrorist organizations, including
Hamas, and perhaps even Al-Qaeda. The MSA has actively solicited donations
for the Holy Land Foundation.10 Treasury Department Secretary Paul O'Neill
named the HLF, as well as two Palestinian-based financial organizations, as
"Hamas operated organizations." President Bush described Hamas as "one of
the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today," which seeks the
total destruction of the State of Israel. Altaf Husain, national president
of the MSA, said his organization has no plans to stop raising money for
various groups unless federal authorities crack down. He called suspicions
about terrorist links post-attack "hype," and said it is up to the
government to trace the money. "We are as American as anyone else. Why
should we be the ones looking for all these so-called 'sleeper cells' or
whatever?"
Mr. Husain's indifference towards aiding terrorist organizations seems to
have infected many of MSA's student chapters. For example, according to the
Supreme Islamic Council, "The MSA's Ohio State University chapter produces
a Web newsletter called MSA News, which has included news releases from the
Algerian Armed Islamic Group, which is on the State Department list of
terrorist organizations that Americans are forbidden to support or finance,
and the Islamic Salvation Front, a fundamentalist party banned in Algeria."
MSA's terror connections appear to even extend beyond Hamas and into the
shadowy realm of bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror organization. In 1998, while
investigating the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, the FBI
recovered diaries maintained by Wadih El Hage, a bin Laden Lieutenant. In
Mr. El Hage's journals, investigators discovered passages that referred to
a "joint venture" with the Holy Land Foundation. In addition, Mr. El Hage's
address book contained the name and phone number of an alleged Hamas figure
who worked with the HFL, Ghassan Dahduli.14 If the HLF was indeed involved
with El Hage, then it seems indisputable that some MSA money has gone to
fund al-Qaeda. Subsequently, a strong argument could be made that members
of International ANSWER's steering committee indirectly contributed to the
September 11th attacks that massacred 2,792 women and men. Quite an
impressive feat, for an organization dedicated to "peace."
The tolerance for anti-Semitism and violence against Jews that taints the
MSA and IFA also manifests itself in the WWP. When a WWP delegation, lead
by Sam Macy and Sue Bailey, traveled to North Korea in April 1992 to attend
Kim Sung Il's 80th birthday celebration, the group entered into discussions
with other hardline Communist groups, including an anti-Semitic
Stalin-worshipping sect called the Russian Communist Workers Party (RCWP)
(Rossiskaia Kommunisticheskaia Rabochaia Partiia, or RKRP), which emerged
from the anti-Gorbachev, "anti-revisionist" Movement of Communist
Initiative in November 1991.
This contact between the WWP and RCWP continued to intensify after the
parties left North Korea. "On September 3rd, 1992, WW ran an article by
Viktor Tyulkin, the group's Secretary of its Central Committee. They
remained in contact, and on Marcy's 85th birthday Tyulkin sent him a
"message of solidarity" from the RCWP that was reprinted in the October
17th, 1996 WW. Tyulkin's comrade Victor Anpilov from the Executive
Committee of Working Russia also enclosed his own "message of solidarity."
This is the same Victor Anipilov who co-founded the RCWP and recently
attacked Boris Yeltsin's presidency as a "Jewish conspiracy."
Although collaboration and "solidarity" between communist organizations is
not in itself shocking, much of the RCWP's platform, which tends to mirror
Anipilov's Yeltsin comments, is. According to the leftist International
Solidarity with Workers in Russia (Sword-SITR-MCPP) group, the RCWP could
be best described as "an extremely racist and homophobic party whose
members worship Stalin, campaign against black people in general and rap
music in particular, issue material calling for homosexuals to be jailed,
and published a party document in 1997 that blamed Russia's economic crisis
on "American imperialism and international Zionism." The group also
attacked current Russian President Vladimir Putin for being so close to
"the Jews that he ignores true Russian 'patriots'."
Despite the RCWP's unabashed anti-Semitic proclamations, the WWP continues
to allow RCWP members to present their political views in the pages of
Workers World. By declaring "solidarity" with the RCWP, it can only be
presumed the WWP sympathizes with the organizations' public statements
regarding Jews. Rather than condemn their comrades' assertions that Jews
will be the downfall of Russia, the WWP has chosen to remain silent.
Further illustrating their sympathy towards anti-Semites, ANSWER's
organizers, many of whom are documented members of the WWP, have frequently
refused to let devoted political leftists and peace advocates speak at
rallies if they hold a pro-Israel position. The most celebrated of these
incidents occurred when Rabbi Michael Lerner was barred from speaking at a
recent IAC anti-war rally in San Francisco. Yet, at its January march in
Washington, ANSWER "handed a microphone to Abdul Malim Musa, a Muslim
cleric who on October 31, 2001 appeared at a news conference at the
National Press Club with other Muslim activists and members of the New
Black Panther Party, 'where speakers asserted that Israel had launched the
9/11 attacks and that thousands of Jews had been warned that day not to go
to work at the World Trade Center.' At that press conference, Musa blasted
the 'Zionists in Hollywood, the Zionists in New York, and the Zionists in
D.C.' who 'all collaborate' to put down blacks and Muslims."
ANSWER's connection to anti-Semites extends even to Ramsey Clark, the head
of IAC and a leader of the new anti-war coalition. As an attorney, Clark
has taken it upon himself to represent several clients primarily
characterized by their intense hatred of Jews. In 1989, Clark represented
Lyndon Larouche, who by the late 1970's embraced far-right anti-Semitism
and Holocaust denial. Despite Larouche's documented history of
anti-Semitism, Clark expressed 'amazement' at the personal 'vilification'
directed at Larouche throughout the trial. Clark also represented PLO
leaders in a suit brought by the family of Leon Klinghoffer, the elderly
vacationer who was shot and thrown overboard from the hijacked Achille
Lauro cruise-ship by renegade Palestinian terrorists in 1986. Another Clark
client was Karl Linnas, an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard in Estonia
(where he had overseen the murder of some 12,000 resistance fighters and
Jews), who was being deported from the US to the USSR to face war crimes
charges. Clark again lost the case but again went to bat for his client in
the public arena, questioning the need to prosecute Nazis "forty years
after some god-awful crime they're alleged to have committed."
It is not troubling that Clark defended these anti-Semitic thugs; our
nation guarantees every man and woman the right to an attorney. However,
there is clearly something highly questionable about a man, especially one
with Clark's profile, who makes an effort to publicly defend Nazis and
anti-Semites after their trial has been concluded. However, in light of
IAC's connection with the WWP, an organization that in the past had been
vehemently opposed to the state of Israel and, most importantly, supported
the RCWP, Clark's comments immediately assume a far more nefarious context.
Taken one example at a time, each of the facts presented concerning the
activities of ANSWER's steering committee would not be sufficient to indict
the organization as a whole. However, even a brief study of some of
ANSWER's steering committee members reveals a pattern of support for
governments, extremist organizations and radical individuals whose goals
contradict ANSWER's stated purpose of stopping war and ending racism.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media has shown little inclination to
investigate the organizations supporting ANSWER, and thus the vast majority
of ANSWER's supporters have no understanding of the group's true origins.
As conflict with Iraq, due to Hussein's continued lack of compliance with
UN Resolution 1441, becomes inevitable, it is likely ANSWER will double its
efforts to infiltrate mainstream America's political consciousness.
Therefore, our citizenry must remain vigilant against these front
organizations efforts to wrap their poisonous agenda in the banner of peace
and brotherhood. After all, the greatest trick the Devil ever played was
convincing man he never existed.
----------
Ryan O'Donnell is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross. He currently
resides in Washington DC, where he is at work on his first novel. Please
visit him at http://www.RyanODonnell.com or email him at raodonne@hotmail.com
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