November 8, 1998--A powerful vested interest is right now pushing forward with a strategy to cripple free speech on the Internet. And the very people who claim to be protecting Internet free speech are keeping deathly silent, not breathing a word of warning.
After you read this message, do drop a line and ask them why. Among them are:
Barry Steinhardt, President
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
http://www.eff.org/
e-mail: webmaster@eff.org
[The EFF's "Blue Ribbon" on-line free speech campaign logo can be seen on many web sites.]
Marc Rotenberg, Esq., Director
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
http://www.epic.org/
e:mail: rotenberg@epic.org
Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC)
http://www.gilc.org/
e:mail: info@gilc.org
The issue that has made the free speech champions speechless is this:
Do we have a right to inquire about, and speak freely about, the series of World War II events now known as "The Holocaust"?
You are no doubt familiar with the traditional story: (1) The Jews living in Europe prior to WW II were innocent and loyal citizens of the nations in which they lived; (2) without cause, Hitler and the Germans hated them and made them scapegoats for Germany's problems; (3) Hitler and the National Socialists designed a systematic and institutionalized program to exterminate all the Jews in the world; (4) Homicidal gas chambers were built specifically for this purpose; (4) Six million Jews were exterminated and their bodies were completely consumed in huge cremation pits and ovens.
True or false, the holocaust story has had, and continues to have, big political ramifications. After the war, it was used to marshal popular support for establishing the state of Israel, and today the holocaust story continues to lend moral legitimacy to Israel.
Upon that legitimacy, hundreds of billions of US dollars have been transferred to Israel. According to an article by Donald Neff (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Jan-Feb. 1997, p. 74) :
". . . the (US) aid program to Israel has amounted to the largest voluntary transfer of wealth and technology in history, far more than all American aid given to rehabilitate Western Europe under the Marshall Plan after World War II."
The horror of the holocaust story has another important effect: It shields the political activity of Jews from public scrutiny. No need to belabor this point: one cannot critically comment upon the political activities of Jews or Israel as one might comment upon the activities of Catholics or the Vatican. Those who are courageous enough to comment will certainly endure public branding: "Nazi!" "Jew-baiter!" "Anti semite!"
But, perhaps most importantly, the holocaust story shows that the Jews are a special people, essentially different from the rest of humanity. Their suffering is unique in human history. No race, nowhere, at any time, as been subject to such persecution.
Theologically, one might say that the Jews have been sanctified by their suffering, as the Christian saints were sanctified by their suffering.
In the holocaust story, Hitler and the Jews are positioned as countervailing forces in a perfect polarity: At one pole, Hitler, the unique embodiment of Human Evil. At the other pole, those he tried to destroy, the Jews, the unique embodiment of Human Good.
[We will leave out of this discussion the fact that the vast majority Jews living today are descendants of the Dark-Age Khazarian Empire and have no Semitic blood. See Arthur Koestler's "The Thirteenth Tribe," Random House, 1976].
The theme that the Jews are unique and have a special role on Earth is often repeated in Jewish thought. The Old Testament, of course, talks about God's Chosen People. In the 12th century, the famous Zionist poet Halevi expressed this same view in "Kuzari" ("The Khazars"). Halevi believed the Jewish nation to be the sole mediator between God and the rest of mankind. Here are more contemporary expressions of the same thought:
"Jewish history consists of a unique series of events--accidental or purposive--which have had the practical effect of preserving the Jews . . . to fulfill their avowed mission of ushering in a brotherhood of man.
"Whether this mission was initiated by God or retroactively attributed to God by the Jews themselves in no way alters our thesis of a Jewish manifest destiny."
This quote appears on the dustjacket of "The Indestructible Jews, " written by Jewish historian Max I. Dimont (New American Library, New York,1971) . This Manifest Destiny of the Jews is actually the subject of Dimont's work.
Dimont quotes Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion: "My concept of the messianic idea is not a metaphysical but a social-cultural one ...I believe in our moral and intellectual superiority, in our capacity to serve as a model for the redemption of the human race ... The glory of the Divine Presence is within us, in our hearts, and not outside us." (p. 337.)
Now the circle is closed. The triumph of the Jews over Evil Incarnate (Hitler) bolsters the Jewish messianic vision of the Jewish destiny.
But What If . . .
But what if the holocaust story is not true? Suppose the German National Socialists were not different in kind from others who have appeared in history throughout the millennia, and suppose that Hitler was not the Embodiment of Human Evil? What effect would that have on the polarity established by the holocaust story? Why, it might that mean the Jews are not the Embodiment of Human Good.
If the Holocaust story were shown to be hoax of the twentieth century, what of Israel, and what of the Manifest Destiny of the Jews?
Enter the scholars and researchers who are taking a second look into the holocaust story. Enter the holocaust revisionists, among them, Ernst Zundel.
Ernst Zundel
Born in 1939 in Germany, Ernst Zundel was raised a Christian and a pacifist As a young man he refused to be conscripted into Germany's armed forces. He emigrated to Canada which, at the time, had no draft.
In Canada, Zundel met a French author, Adrien Arcand, who set Zundel on a path of scholarship and research concerning events during WW II. As a result of these studies, Zundel concluded that there never was a Hitler-designed and directed program to exterminate the Jews.
Instead, Hitler had a "Germany for Germans" program. Hitler and other Germans considered the Jews a foreign and hostile nation living within Germany's boundaries, and proceeded with plans to deport them. Thus the tattooing and the concentration camps.
Those familiar with Jewish history know, of course, that the Jews have been viewed as foreign nationals and expelled from their host countries on a number of occasions. For example, they were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, and from Spain in 1492. Hitler was not unique in this regard.
Zundel claims the gas-chamber-extermination story was an allied propaganda campaign fired up during WWII. He says that since that time the false story has been used to raise money and sympathy for the Israeli/Jewish/Zionist political agenda.
Because he was an effective and energetic communicator, Zundel soon became a threat to holocaust lobby. Many attempts were made to silence him, ranging from the filing of court actions to fire-bombing his house and an attempt to murder him with a pipe bomb. But Zundel survived.
Enter the Internet. Technology favored revisionists like Zundel. The Interent has by passed the largely Jewish-owned monopoly of the press. Now, Zundel's research and the research of many other revisionists is available for all with a computer modem to see.
Zundel's research and views can be found at the Zundelsite:
The Zundelsite links section will take you to many other revisionist sites. The glaring holes in the holocaust story are out there for all to see. You will understand, perhaps, why the holocaust lobby is trying to cleanse the Internet of holocaust revisionism.
A new strategy to censor Zundel's material on the Internet was needed and devised. Enter the Canadian Human Rights Commission, on the forefront of the current attack on Zundel. Here is their tortured logic:
1) The Commission says "denying the holocaust" is hate speech,
2) The Commission claims jurisdiction over "hate" speech transmitted on Canadian telephone lines,
3) The Commission says that the Internet is "like a telephone,"
4) Therefore, the Commission has jurisdiction over Zundel's spreading of "hate" on the Internet.
Astonishingly, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has ruled that Zundel cannot use the truth of what he has said as a defense! In other words, the truth of Zundel's material is irrelevant. See:
http://www.webcom.com/ezundel/english/misc/attention.html
While there are significant problems in the Commission's argument, there is also a problem in Zundel's defense. The Commission's "the Internet is like a telephone" charge was exhaustively discussed in the Declan McCullough private e-mail list which caters to cyber free speech/privacy types. At first a number of people were willing to come forward to testify as technical experts on Zundel's behalf. But all have been intimidated into silence. To my knowledge, Zundel's legal team have still been unable to locate a technical witness to come before the Commission.
But what of the groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC)? They should be publicizing the case and arranging for technical experts to go to bat for Zundel. But these groups seem to be covertly working for the other side.
Zundel offered to address a meeting of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign in Ottawa last month. His offer was ignored.
The chief officers of EEF and EPIC, Messrs. Steinhardt and Rotenberg, are both Jews. If they were sincere in their proclamations for free speech, they surely would be in an excellent position to offer material assistance to Zundel. Instead, they are palpably helping the forces of censorship by keeping mum on the matter while directing public attention away from the Zundel case.
If Messrs. Steinhardt and Rotenberg are not sincere in their Bill of Rights free speech proclamations, what program ARE they following, and whose interests DO they serve? Drop them an e-mail letter and ask:
Barry Steinhardt, President
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF)
"The Blue Ribbon On-Line Free Speech Campaign"
http://www.eff.org/
e-mail: webmaster@eff.org
Marc Rotenberg, Esq., Director
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
http://www.epic.org/
e:mail: rotenberg@epic.org
And ask GILC why they ignored Zundel's offer to address their conference in October.
Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC)
http://www.gilc.org/
e:mail: info@gilc.org
This writer has written letters concerning the Zundel case to EFF, EPIC, and GILC. None of the groups has responded. Copies of the letters are at:
http://www.Public-Action.com/SkyWriter/
Please help to fill the information void. Spread this news to your own personal mailing lists, and get on any and all suitable Usenet news group and start or join discussions. Go to the Zundelsite and learn more:
http://www.webcom.com/ezundel/
See postnote (below) for more information.
===
Carol A. Valentine
President, Public Action, Inc.
Have you seen the Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum?
See what they did to the mothers and children--
http://www.Public-Action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum
"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary
act."--
attr. George Orwell
Postnote:
The Zundelsite is owned and operated by an American citizen, Dr. Ingrid Rimland, who lives in California. The strategy is, apparently, to convict Zundel and issue an injunction ordering not to speak of holocaust matters over telephone wires; when Zundel violates the injunction by speaking to Dr. Rimland or anyone else about his views, he can be criminally convicted and deported to Germany (he is still a German citizen, having been denied Canadian citizenship twice). "Holocaust denial" is a crime in Germany, and Zundel has already been convicted, so he will go straight to prison. At the same time, an important international "hate speech" censorship' precedent will have been established for the Internet.
Meanwhile, the holocaust lobby is attacking Zundel in another venue: The Canadian civilian spy agency and its oversight body (the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Security Intelligence review Committee) have been holding hearings on Zundel, claiming that he poses a "security risk" to Canada. Zundel has not been given any more details, and has not been told of the "evidence" against him. The hearings are being held in secret, without public record. The apparent goal: to get Zundel deported from Canada and imprisoned in Germany.
=========================
Copyright November, 1998, Carol A Valentine. May be reproduced
for non-commercial purposes.