| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Adolf Liberal" |
| Date: |
29 Mar 2005 12:09:13 PM |
| Object: |
Hitler used Starvation too |
The Nazis Used Starvation to Kill
Confounding all conventional wisdom and human experience,
many liberal groups and even some medical experts have argued
for Terri Schiavo’s death.
They claim that starvation and dehydration are not painful or
discomforting for her or anyone undergoing the experience.
In fact, they allege that such victims begin to experience "euphoria"
as the victims draw close to death.
If such claims are true, we may have to rewrite the history of such
notorious events as the Holocaust – where starvation was the key
process by which millions died and were later placed in crematoriums.
The internationally accepted Geneva Convention – which identifies
starvation as a war crime – also will have to be rewritten. Ditto for
many statements made by reputable organizations, many of them liberal,
that have condemned the practice for decades.
Strange Bedfellows
Remember that statement about politics making strange bedfellows?
Perhaps such is the case with liberal activists who want Terri to die
from starvation and the Nazis who killed 13 million people.
As it turns out, starvation was the primary means of killing unwanted
peoples.
Shortly after World War II, a U.S. congressional committee
investigated the Nazi Holocaust and found that starvation was the main
instrument of torture in the concentration camps.
The Committee notes the prisoners' daily diet "consisted generally of
about one-half of a pound of black bread per day and a bowl of watery
soup for noon and night, and not always that."
The report continued: "Notwithstanding the deliberate starvation
program inflicted upon these prisoners by lack of adequate food, we
found no evidence that the people of Germany as a whole were suffering
from any lack of sufficient food or clothing. The contrast was so
striking that the only conclusion which we could reach was that the
starvation of the inmates of these camps was deliberate."
If we believe the New York Times, what’s so bad about the Nazis'
starvation tactic?
A Times article relating to Schiavo’s death cited several "experts”
who offered the new view on starvation.
"From the data that is available, it is not a horrific thing at all,"
Dr. Linda Emanuel, the founder of the Education for Physicians in
End-of-Life Care Project at Northwestern University, told the New York
Times.
The Times also cites Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and
palliative care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who
insists that starvation victims "generally slip into a peaceful coma."
"It's very quiet, it's very dignified – it's very gentle," he adds.
Despite the Times' desire to turn the truth upside down, the facts
speak for themselves:
To begin with, there is the long-standing and internationally accepted
Geneva Convention: "The prohibition to starve civilians as a ‘method
of warfare’ is included in Article 54 of Protocol I and Article 14 of
Protocol II."
According to the International Criminal Court, starvation as a means
of killing is a war crime. The Court noted: "Intentionally using
starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of
objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding
relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions' is a
serious violation of the laws and customs of war [52]."
The liberal human rights organization Amnesty International has long
cited starvation as inhumane. For example, in the aftermath of the
Vietnam War, the group claimed that "scores of civilian deaths,
predominantly among children, from starvation and injuries [were]
sustained during the conflict."
Amnesty International stated at the time that it "condemns in the
strongest terms the use of starvation as a weapon of war against
civilians as a clear and serious violation of Geneva Conventions that
Laos has ratified."
Amnesty International also blasted North Korea after the U.N. reported
that some 2 million North Koreans have died from starvation, adding
that in total, 50 percent of the population doesn't have enough to
eat.
Work And Progress, a liberal Web site, was critical of U.S.
involvement in Afghanistan in 2001, and even claimed the U.S. military
action there had caused up to 7.5 million Afghans to be threatened
with starvation. The site went on to note: "Starvation is, quite
literally, torturous. And the equation will seem just about right to
many people: the atrocity that the U.S. government is willing to
subject a handful of people to on U.S. soil, it is willing to subject
millions to in some far off land."
In 2001, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., a member of the Congressional Human
Rights Caucus, offered up House Resolution 102, backed by three other
lawmakers, noting that during World War II, many of the 18,745
American soldiers captured during the war "were subjected to barbaric
prison conditions and endured torture, starvation, and disease" by the
Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. The treatment of American POWs
"violated international human rights principles," said the resolution.
In a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, regarding
the "Definition of the Right to Food," the commission recommended "the
right to food and nutrition was a human right." The commission also
advocated "the right to food in emergency situations" should "be taken
into account," to "include the obligation of states to grant access to
impartial humanitarian organizations to provide food aid and other
humanitarian assistance."
The New York Times may well be remembered as the newspaper that was
most outraged over photos of Iraqi terrorist suspects being mistreated
by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison – but claimed that starvation
was a benevolent way to die.
Of course, if the Times is right – and starvation causes "little
discomfort" – the paper may have uncovered a valuable new tool in the
war on terror.
One wonders how the Old Gray Lady would react if U.S. interrogators
began to starve terrorist suspects in a bid to extract information.
----------------------------------------------
Isaiah 32:
5. The vile person shall be no more called liberal,
nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6. For the vile person will speak villany, and his
heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy,
and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty
the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of
the thirsty to fail.
7. The instruments also of the churl are evil:
he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor
with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8. But the liberal deviseth liberal things;
and by liberal things shall he stand.
----------------------------------------------
.
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| User: "Roger" |
|
| Title: Re: Hitler used Starvation too |
30 Mar 2005 08:02:31 AM |
|
|
Get help.
"Adolf Liberal" <Adolf@Liberalists.org> wrote in message
news:qb6j415q941h72fj3f6knvr7au0am3crqp@4ax.com...
The Nazis Used Starvation to Kill
Confounding all conventional wisdom and human experience,
many liberal groups and even some medical experts have argued
for Terri Schiavo's death.
They claim that starvation and dehydration are not painful or
discomforting for her or anyone undergoing the experience.
In fact, they allege that such victims begin to experience "euphoria"
as the victims draw close to death.
If such claims are true, we may have to rewrite the history of such
notorious events as the Holocaust - where starvation was the key
process by which millions died and were later placed in crematoriums.
The internationally accepted Geneva Convention - which identifies
starvation as a war crime - also will have to be rewritten. Ditto for
many statements made by reputable organizations, many of them liberal,
that have condemned the practice for decades.
Strange Bedfellows
Remember that statement about politics making strange bedfellows?
Perhaps such is the case with liberal activists who want Terri to die
from starvation and the Nazis who killed 13 million people.
As it turns out, starvation was the primary means of killing unwanted
peoples.
Shortly after World War II, a U.S. congressional committee
investigated the Nazi Holocaust and found that starvation was the main
instrument of torture in the concentration camps.
The Committee notes the prisoners' daily diet "consisted generally of
about one-half of a pound of black bread per day and a bowl of watery
soup for noon and night, and not always that."
The report continued: "Notwithstanding the deliberate starvation
program inflicted upon these prisoners by lack of adequate food, we
found no evidence that the people of Germany as a whole were suffering
from any lack of sufficient food or clothing. The contrast was so
striking that the only conclusion which we could reach was that the
starvation of the inmates of these camps was deliberate."
If we believe the New York Times, what's so bad about the Nazis'
starvation tactic?
A Times article relating to Schiavo's death cited several "experts"
who offered the new view on starvation.
"From the data that is available, it is not a horrific thing at all,"
Dr. Linda Emanuel, the founder of the Education for Physicians in
End-of-Life Care Project at Northwestern University, told the New York
Times.
The Times also cites Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and
palliative care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who
insists that starvation victims "generally slip into a peaceful coma."
"It's very quiet, it's very dignified - it's very gentle," he adds.
Despite the Times' desire to turn the truth upside down, the facts
speak for themselves:
To begin with, there is the long-standing and internationally accepted
Geneva Convention: "The prohibition to starve civilians as a 'method
of warfare' is included in Article 54 of Protocol I and Article 14 of
Protocol II."
According to the International Criminal Court, starvation as a means
of killing is a war crime. The Court noted: "Intentionally using
starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of
objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding
relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions' is a
serious violation of the laws and customs of war [52]."
The liberal human rights organization Amnesty International has long
cited starvation as inhumane. For example, in the aftermath of the
Vietnam War, the group claimed that "scores of civilian deaths,
predominantly among children, from starvation and injuries [were]
sustained during the conflict."
Amnesty International stated at the time that it "condemns in the
strongest terms the use of starvation as a weapon of war against
civilians as a clear and serious violation of Geneva Conventions that
Laos has ratified."
Amnesty International also blasted North Korea after the U.N. reported
that some 2 million North Koreans have died from starvation, adding
that in total, 50 percent of the population doesn't have enough to
eat.
Work And Progress, a liberal Web site, was critical of U.S.
involvement in Afghanistan in 2001, and even claimed the U.S. military
action there had caused up to 7.5 million Afghans to be threatened
with starvation. The site went on to note: "Starvation is, quite
literally, torturous. And the equation will seem just about right to
many people: the atrocity that the U.S. government is willing to
subject a handful of people to on U.S. soil, it is willing to subject
millions to in some far off land."
In 2001, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., a member of the Congressional Human
Rights Caucus, offered up House Resolution 102, backed by three other
lawmakers, noting that during World War II, many of the 18,745
American soldiers captured during the war "were subjected to barbaric
prison conditions and endured torture, starvation, and disease" by the
Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. The treatment of American POWs
"violated international human rights principles," said the resolution.
In a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, regarding
the "Definition of the Right to Food," the commission recommended "the
right to food and nutrition was a human right." The commission also
advocated "the right to food in emergency situations" should "be taken
into account," to "include the obligation of states to grant access to
impartial humanitarian organizations to provide food aid and other
humanitarian assistance."
The New York Times may well be remembered as the newspaper that was
most outraged over photos of Iraqi terrorist suspects being mistreated
by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison - but claimed that starvation
was a benevolent way to die.
Of course, if the Times is right - and starvation causes "little
discomfort" - the paper may have uncovered a valuable new tool in the
war on terror.
One wonders how the Old Gray Lady would react if U.S. interrogators
began to starve terrorist suspects in a bid to extract information.
----------------------------------------------
Isaiah 32:
5. The vile person shall be no more called liberal,
nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6. For the vile person will speak villany, and his
heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy,
and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty
the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of
the thirsty to fail.
7. The instruments also of the churl are evil:
he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor
with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8. But the liberal deviseth liberal things;
and by liberal things shall he stand.
----------------------------------------------
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Hitler used Starvation too |
29 Mar 2005 12:44:55 PM |
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On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:09:13 -0800, Adolf Liberal
<Adolf@Liberalists.org> wrote:
The Nazis Used Starvation to Kill
No, Hitler used mindless right wing idealogical morons (like you) to
kill.
Hal
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| User: "Adolf Liberal" |
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| Title: Re: Hitler used Starvation too |
29 Mar 2005 02:44:08 PM |
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On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:44:55 -0700, wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:09:13 -0800, Adolf Liberal
<Adolf@Liberalists.org> wrote:
The Nazis Used Starvation to Kill
No, Hitler used mindless right wing idealogical morons (like you) to
kill.
Hal
HITLER WAS A LEFTIST
----------------------------------------------
Isaiah 32:
5. The vile person shall be no more called liberal,
nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6. For the vile person will speak villany, and his
heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy,
and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty
the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of
the thirsty to fail.
7. The instruments also of the churl are evil:
he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor
with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8. But the liberal deviseth liberal things;
and by liberal things shall he stand.
----------------------------------------------
.
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| User: "Frank Dwyer" |
|
| Title: Re: Hitler used Starvation too |
29 Mar 2005 03:48:30 PM |
|
|
Adolf Liberal wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:44:55 -0700, wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:09:13 -0800, Adolf Liberal
<Adolf@Liberalists.org> wrote:
The Nazis Used Starvation to Kill
No, Hitler used mindless right wing idealogical morons (like you) to
kill.
Hal
HITLER WAS A LEFTIST
Hitler was a fool.
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Hitler used Starvation too |
29 Mar 2005 02:57:18 PM |
|
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On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 12:44:08 -0800, Adolf Liberal
<Adolf@Liberalists.org> wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:44:55 -0700, wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:09:13 -0800, Adolf Liberal
<Adolf@Liberalists.org> wrote:
The Nazis Used Starvation to Kill
No, Hitler used mindless right wing idealogical morons (like you) to
kill.
Hal
HITLER WAS A LEFTIST
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
Damn you're funny.
Or really, really, really stupid.
Hal
What is Fascism?
From: NLG Civil Liberties Committee
Sept. 27, 1992 by Chip Berlet
This article is adapted from the author's preface to Russ Bellant's
book "Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party,"
co-published by South End Press and Political Research Associates.
"Fascism, which was not afraid to call itself reactionary... does not
hesitate to call itself illiberal and anti-liberal."
_Benito Mussolini
We have all heard of the Nazis_but our image is usually a caricature
of a brutal goose-stepping soldier wearing a uniform emblazoned with a
swastika. Most people in the U.S. are aware that the U.S. and its
allies fought a war against the Nazis, but there is much more to know
if one is to learn the important lessons of our recent history.
Technically, the word NAZI was the acronym for the National Socialist
German Worker's Party. It was a fascist movement that had its roots in
the European nationalist and socialist movements, and that developed a
grotesque biologically-determinant view of so-called "Aryan"
supremacy. (Here we use "national socialism" to refer to the early
Nazi movement before Hitler came to power, sometimes termed the
"Brownshirt" phase, and the term "Nazi" to refer to the movement after
it had consolidated around ideological fascism.)
The seeds of fascism, however, were planted in Italy. "Fascism is
reaction," said Mussolini, but reaction to what? The reactionary
movement following World War I was based on a rejection of the social
theories that formed the basis of the 1789 French Revolution, and
whose early formulations in this country had a major influence on our
Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
It was Rousseau who is best known for crystallizing these modern
social theories in . The progeny of these theories are sometimes
called Modernism or Modernity because they challenged social theories
generally accepted since the days of Machiavelli. The response to the
French Revolution and Rousseau, by Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and others,
poured into an intellectual stew which served up Marxism, socialism,
national socialism, fascism, modern liberalism, modern conservatism,
communism, and a variety of forms of capitalist participatory
democracy.
Fascists particularly loathed the social theories of the French
Revolution and its slogan: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."
*** Liberty from oppressive government intervention in the daily lives
of its citizens, from illicit searches and seizures, from enforced
religious values, from intimidation and arrest for dissenters; and
liberty to cast a vote in a system in which the majority ruled but the
minority retained certain inalienable rights.
*** Equality in the sense of civic equality, egalitarianism, the
notion that while people differ, they all should stand equal in the
eyes of the law.
*** Fraternity in the sense of the brotherhood of mankind. That all
women and men, the old and the young, the infirm and the healthy, the
rich and the poor, share a spark of humanity that must be cherished on
a level above that of the law, and that binds us all together in a
manner that continuously re-affirms and celebrates life.
This is what fascism as an ideology was reacting against_and its
support came primarily from desperate people anxious and angry over
their perception that their social and economic position was sinking
and frustrated with the constant risk of chaos, uncertainty and
inefficiency implicit in a modern democracy based on these principles.
Fascism is the antithesis of democracy. We fought a war against it not
half a century ago; millions perished as victims of fascism and
champions of liberty.
"One of the great lies of this century is that in the 1930's
Generalissimo Franco in Spain was primarily a nationalist engaged in
stopping the Reds. Franco was, of course, a fascist who was aided by
Mussolini and Hitler."
"The history of this period is a press forgery. Falsified news
manipulates public opinion. Democracy needs facts.
_George Seldes Hartland Four Corners, Vermont, March 5, 1988
Fascism was forged in the crucible of post-World War I nationalism in
Europe. The national aspirations of many European peoples_nations
without states, peoples arbitrarily assigned to political entities
with little regard for custom or culture_had been crushed after World
War I. The humiliation imposed by the victors in the Great War,
coupled with the hardship of the economic Depression, created
bitterness and anger. That anger frequently found its outlet in an
ideology that asserted not just the importance of the nation, but its
unquestionable primacy and central predestined role in history.
In identifying "goodness" and "superiority" with "us," there was a
tendency to identify "evil" with "them." This process involves
scapegoating and dehumanization. It was then an easy step to blame all
societal problems on "them," and presuppose a conspiracy of these
evildoers which had emasculated and humiliated the idealized core
group of the nation. To solve society's problems one need only unmask
the conspirators and eliminate them.
In Europe, Jews were the handy group to scapegoat as "them." Anti-
Jewish conspiracy theories and discrimination against Jews were not a
new phenomenon, but most academic studies of the period note an
increased anti-Jewish fervor in Europe, especially in the late 1800's.
In France this anti-Jewish bias was most publicly expressed in the
case of Alfred Dreyfus, a French military officer of Jewish
background, who in 1894 was falsely accused of treason, convicted
(through the use of forged papers as evidence) and imprisoned on
Devil's Island. Zola led a noble struggle which freed Dreyfus and
exposed the role of anti-Jewish bigotry in shaping French society and
betraying the principles on which France was building its democracy.
Not all European nationalist movements were necessarily fascist,
although many were. In some countries much of the Catholic hierarchy
embraced fascist nationalism as a way to counter the encroachment of
secular influences on societies where previously the church had sole
control over societal values and mores. This was especially true in
Slovakia and Croatia, where the Clerical Fascist movements were
strong, and to a lesser extent in Poland and Hungary. Yet even in
these countries individual Catholic leaders and laity spoke out
against bigotry as the shadow of fascism crept across Europe. And in
every country of Europe there were ordinary citizens who took
extraordinary risks to shelter the victims of the Holocaust. So
religion and nationality cannot be valid indicators of fascist
sentiment. And the Nazis not only came for the Jews, as the famous
quote reminds us, but for the communists and the trade union leaders,
and indeed the Gypsies, the dissidents and the homosexuals. Nazism and
fascism are more complex than popular belief. What, then, is the
nature of fascism?
Italy was the birthplace of fascist ideology. Mussolini, a former
socialist journalist, organized the first fascist movement in 1919 at
Milan. In 1922 Mussolini led a march on Rome, was given a government
post by the king, and began transforming the Italian political system
into a fascist state. In 1938 he forced the last vestige of democracy,
the Council of Deputies, to vote themselves out of existence, leaving
Mussolini dictator of fascist Italy.
Yet there were Italian fascists who resisted scapegoating and
dehumanization even during World War II. Not far from the area where
Austrian Prime Minister Kurt Waldheim is accused of assisting in the
transport of Jews to the death camps, one Italian General, Mario
Roatta, who had pledged equality of treatment to civilians, refused to
obey the German military order to round up Jews. Roatta said such an
activity was "incompatible with the honor of the Italian Army."
Franco's fascist movement in Spain claimed state power in 1936,
although it took three years, the assistance of the Italian fascists
and help from the secretly reconstituted German Air Force finally to
crush those who fought for democracy. Picasso's famous painting
depicts the carnage wrought in a Spanish village by the bombs dropped
by the forerunner of the which all too soon would be working on an
even larger canvas. Yet Franco's fascist Spain never adopted the
obsession with race and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that were
hallmarks of Hitler's Nazi movement in Germany.
Other fascist movements in Europe were more explicitly racialist,
promoting the slogan still used today by some neo-Nazi movements:
"Nation is Race." The Nazi racialist version of fascism was developed
by Adolph Hitler who with six others formed the Nazi party during 1919
and 1920. Imprisoned after the unsuccessful 1923 Beer Hall putsch in
Munich, Hitler dictated his opus, to his secretary, Rudolph Hess.
(My Battle) sets out a plan for creating in Germany through national
socialism a racially pure state. To succeed, said Hitler, "Aryan"
Germany had to resist two forces: the external threat posed by the
French with their bloodlines "negrified" through "contamination by
Negro blood," and the internal threat posed by "the Marxist shock
troops of international Jewish stock exchange capital." Hitler was
named Chancellor of Germany by Hindenburg in January 1933 and by
year's end had consolidated his power as a fascist dictator and begun
a campaign for racialist nationalism that eventually led to the
Holocaust.
This obsession with a racialism not only afflicted the German Nazis,
but also several eastern European nationalist and fascist movements
including those in Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia, Lithuania, Romania,
Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. Anti-Jewish bigotry was rampant in all of
these racialist movements, as was the idea of a link between Jewish
financiers and Marxists. Even today the tiny Anti-communist
Confederation of Polish Freedom Fighters in the U.S.A. uses the slogan
"Communism is Jewish."
"Reactionary concepts plus revolutionary emotion result in Fascist
mentality."
_Wilhelm Reich
One element shared by all fascist movements, racialist or not, is the
apparent lack of consistent political principle behind the
ideology_political opportunism in the most basic sense. One virtually
unique aspect of fascism is its ruthless drive to attain and hold
state power. On that road to power, fascists are willing to abandon
any principle to adopt an issue more in vogue and more likely to gain
converts.
Hitler, for his part, committed his act of abandonment bloodily and
dramatically. When the industrialist power brokers offered control of
Germany to Hitler, they knew he was supported by national socialist
ideologues who held views incompatible with their idea of profitable
enterprise. Hitler solved the problem in the "Night of the Long
Knives," during which he had the leadership of the national socialist
wing of his constituency murdered in their sleep.
What distinguishes Nazism from generic fascism is its obsession with
racial theories of superiority, and some would say, its roots in the
socialist theory of proletarian revolution.
Fascism and Nazism as ideologies involve, to varying degrees, some of
the following hallmarks:
*** Nationalism and super-patriotism with a sense of historic mission.
*** Aggressive militarism even to the extent of glorifying war as good
for the national or individual spirit.
*** Use of violence or threats of violence to impose views on others
(fascism and Nazism both employed street violence and state violence
at different moments in their development).
*** Authoritarian reliance on a leader or elite not constitutionally
responsible to an electorate.
*** Cult of personality around a charismatic leader.
*** Reaction against the values of Modernism, usually with emotional
attacks against both liberalism and communism.
*** Exhortations for the homogeneous masses of common folk (Volkish in
German, Populist in the U.S.) to join voluntarily in a heroic
mission_often metaphysical and romanticized in character.
*** Dehumanization and scapegoating of the enemy_seeing the enemy as
an inferior or subhuman force, perhaps involved in a conspiracy that
justifies eradicating them.
*** The self image of being a superior form of social organization
beyond socialism, capitalism and democracy.
*** Elements of national socialist ideological roots, for example,
ostensible support for the industrial working class or farmers; but
ultimately, the forging of an alliance with an elite sector of
society.
*** Abandonment of any consistent ideology in a drive for state power.
It is vitally important to understand that fascism and Nazism are not
biologically or culturally determinant. Fascism does not attach to the
gene structure of any specific group or nationality. Nazism was not
the ultimate expression of the German people. Fascism did not end with
World War II.
After Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, the geopolitical
landscape of Europe was once again drastically altered. In a few short
months, some of our former fascist enemies became our allies in the
fight to stop the spread of communism. The record of this
transformation has been laid out in a series of books. U.S.
recruitment of the Nazi spy apparatus has been chronicled in books
ranging from by Hohne & Zolling, to the recent by Simpson. The
laundering of Nazi scientists into our space program is chronicled in
by Bowers. The global activities of, and ongoing fascist role within,
the World Anti-Communist League were described in by Anderson and
Anderson. Bellant's bibliography cites many other examples of detailed
and accurate reporting of these disturbing realities.
But if so much is already known of this period, why does journalist
and historian George Seldes call the history of Europe between roughly
1920 and 1950 a "press forgery"? Because most people are completely
unfamiliar with this material, and because so much of the popular
historical record either ignores or contradicts the facts of European
nationalism, Nazi collaborationism, and our government's reliance on
these enemies of democracy to further our Cold War foreign policy
objectives.
This widely-accepted, albeit misleading, historical record has been
shaped by filtered media reports and self-serving academic revisionism
rooted in an ideological preference for those European nationalist
forces which opposed socialism and communism. Since sectors of those
nationalist anti-communist forces allied themselves with political
fascism, but later became our allies against communism, for
collaborationists became the rule, not the exception.
Soon, as war memories dimmed and newspaper accounts of collaboration
faded, the fascists and their allies re-emerged cloaked in a new
mantle of respectability. Portrayed as anti-communist freedom
fighters, their backgrounds blurred by time and artful circumlocution,
they stepped forward to continue their political organizing with goals
unchanged and slogans slightly repackaged to suit domestic
sensibilities.
To fight communism after World War II, our government forged a
tactical alliance with what was perceived to be the lesser of two
evils_and as with many such bargains, there has been a high price to
pay.
"The great masses of people. . .will more easily fall victims to a big
lie than to a small one."
_Adolph Hitler
Subject: More on the Rockford Institute issue
Originator:
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 16:59:02 GMT
______- FORWARDED POSTING______- written by Chip Berlet _____
From: NLG Civil Liberties Committee
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Date: 07 Oct 92 20:48 PDT
Subject: Re: Berlet vs. Dallas Morning News (wa
Message-ID: <1299600092@igc.apc.org>
In the original posting I wrote that Stockdale was a current Board
Member of the Rockford Institute. Stockdale resigned in 1989. I
apologize for the error which was picked up from a reporter who
misunderstood the Hoover/Rockford sequence. Stockdale was on the
Rockford board during the Neuhaus controversy where the issues of
racial insensitivity and anti-Semitism first surfaced.
More information on the Rockford Institute, Stockdale, the Paleocons,
and the Perot campaign
- - - - - - PLEASE NOTE: My original posting suggested that Stockdale
needed to answer some tough questions about his service on the Board
of Directors of Rockford. Many people seem to have lost sight of that
key point. This is a fair issue to raise about someone running for
vice-president.- - - - - -
The Rockford Institute feud where the staff in New York was tossed out
for raising issues of racial tolerance was covered in the , May 16,
1989 (pp. 1,8). Perot's running mate Stockdale was on the Board of
Directors of Rockford in 1989. Theologian Rev. Richard John Neuhaus
and his staff at the Center for Religion and Society were fired and
locked out of their offices.
From the : "The raid on the center's office was provoked by Pastor Neuhaus's complaint, supported by a number of leading conservative figures, that the Rockford Institute's monthly publication, , was tilting toward views favoring native-born citizens and values and that it was `insensitive to the classic language of antiSemitism.'"
"Pastor Neuhaus and his Center for Religion and Society have become
symbols of the neo-conservative side of the argument, standing
opposite the center's parent organization, the Rockford Institute."
To unravel the background of the dispute takes a political scorecard.
The Rockford Institute and rightists like Pat Buchanan are allied with
reactionary and hard-line rightist forces in the U.S. The more
moderate of these hard-right forces sometimes are called
paleo-conservatives or "Paleocons" due to their ties to the "Old
Right" in the United States. The farthest fringe of this circle is
populated by persons who reflect a racial-nationalist or even
neo-fascist viewpoint. Buchanan networks across the spectrum of the
hard-right, from Paleocon to neo-Fascist. Racism and anti-Jewish
bigotry were common themes in some (although not all) Old Right
groups.
Buchanan endorsed the work of the Rockford Institute after the Neuhaus
incident. In his January 25, 1990 newsletter, Buchanan penned what was
in essence an ode to fascism which celebrated the efficiency of
autocracy, and concluded with the line, "If the people are corrupt,
the more democracy, the worse the government." The column also echoed
historically racialist themes. The "Neocons," the neo-conservative
movement in the United States for over ten years quietly tolerated
more than a little anti-democratic authoritarianism, anti-Jewish
bigotry, and racism from their tactical allies on the Paleocon right.
Their alliance was based on shared support for militant
anti-communism, celebration of unfettered free enterprise, calls for
high levels of U.S. spending on the U.S. military, and support for a
militarily strong Israel dominated by hard-line ultraconservative
political parties that would stand as a bulwark against communism in
the Middle East.
Since there are some high-profile Jews in the intellectual leadership
of the neo-conservative movement, some persons have concluded that
neo-conservatism is a Jewish ideology. This is a prejudiced assertion,
and it is at the heart of much of the Neocon/Paleocon dispute, with
the Paleocons repeatedly making bigotted references about the people
who "control" the Neocon movement and charge them with "anti-Semitism"
and "nativism." See for example the June 1992 , which defends the
Paleocons.
For a look at the Neocon view of Buchanan and the Rockford crowd see
the May 1992 issues of published by Neuhaus ("The Year that
Conservatism Turned Ugly"), and ("Buchanan and the Conservative
Crackup").
Fascist political movements are experiencing a resurgence around the
world. In the United States, the 1992 presidential campaigns of David
Duke, Patrick Buchanan, and H. Ross Perot echoed different elements of
historic fascism.
Duke's neo-Nazi past resonates, in a consciously sanitized form, in
his current formulations of white supremacist and anti-Jewish
political theories. Duke has embraced key elements of the neoNazi
Christian Identity religion.
Buchanan's theories of isolationist nationalism and xenophobia hearken
back to the proto-fascist ideas of the 1930's America First movement
and its well-known promoters, Charles Lindbergh and Father Charles
Coughlin. In his Republican convention speech, Buchanan eerily invoked
Nazi symbols of blood, soil and honor.
Perot's candidacy provided us with a contemporary model of the fascist
concept of the organic leader, the "Man on a White Horse" whose strong
egocentric commands are seen as reflecting the will of the people.
These three candidacies were played out as the Bush Administration
pursued its agenda of a managed corporate economy, a repressive
national security state, and an aggressive foreign policy based on
military threat, all of which borrows heavily from the theories of
corporatism, authoritarianism, and militarism adopted by Italian
fascism.
Duke, Buchanan, and Perot all feed on the politics of resentment,
alienation, frustration, anger and fear. Their supporters tended to
blame our vexing societal problems on handy scapegoats and they sought
salvation from a strong charismatic leader. See the prescient article
on "The Politics of Frustration" by conservative Republican analyst
Kevin Phillips in April 12, 1992, pp. 38-42. In this article,
Phillips, (remember, he is an anti-Bush conservative Republican)
raises the issue of similarity between the current campaign and the
Weimar period in Germany when the fascists were organizing under the
banner of national socialism and popular discontent.
There are other strains of fascism active today. While much attention
has been paid to the more extreme biologicaldeterminist neo-Nazi
groups such as racist skinheads, there has also been steady growth in
other forms of Fascism. Corporatism (sometimes called corporativism)
and the economic nationalist branch of fascism are being revived. In
Eastern Europe, racial nationalism, a key component of fascism, has
surfaced in many new political parties, and is a driving force behind
the tragic bloodletting and drive for "ethnic cleansing" in the former
nation of Yugoslavia. Other pillars of fascism such as racism,
xenophobia, anti-Jewish theories and anti-immigrant scapegoating
provide a sinister backdrop for increasing physical assaults on people
of color and lesbians and gay men.
Further complicating matters is the reemergence in Europe of fascist
ideologies that promote concepts of racial nationalism: a national
socialist strain of fascist ideology called the Third Position or
Third Way, and its more intellectual aristocratic ally called the
European New Right (Nouvelle Droit) For a brilliant short essay on the
rise of the Nouvelle Droit see "Pogroms Begin in the Mind" by Wolfgang
Haug, a transcribed lecture with a challenging introduction by Janet
Biehl ( May 1992, P.O. Box 111, Burlington, Vermont 05402.)
Intellectual leaders of the European New Right, such as Alain de
Benoist, are hailed as profound thinkers in U.S. reactionary
publications such as the Rockford Institute's . The more overtly
neo-Nazi segment of the Third Position has intellectual links to the
Strasserite wing of German national socialism, and is critical of
Hitler's brand of Nazism for having betrayed the working class. See
magazines such as or published in England. Third Position groups
believe in a racially-homogeneous decentralized tribal form of
nationalism, and claim to have evolved an ideology "beyond communism
and capitalism."
Third Position adherents actively seek to recruit from the left. One
such group is the American Front in Portland, Oregon, which runs a
phone hotline that in late November, 1991 featured an attack on
critics of left/right coalitions. White supremacist leader Tom Metzger
promotes Third Position politics in his newspaper which stands for
White Aryan Resistance. Third Position themes have surfaced in the
ecology movement and other movements championed by progressives.
Conspiracism and scapegoating go hand-in-hand, and both are key
ingredients of the fascist phenomenon. Fascism is difficult to define
succinctly. As Roger Scruton observes in "A Dictionary of Political
Thought," fascism is "An amalgam of disparate conceptions." (Scruton,
Roger. "A Dictionary of Political Thought," London: The Macmillan
Press, 1982, p. 169)
Scruton:
"[Fascism is] more notable as a political phenomenon on which diverse
intellectual influences converge than as a distinct idea; as political
phenomenon, one of its most remarkable features has been the ability
to win massive popular support for ideas that are expressly
anti-egalitarian."
"Fascism is characterized by the following features (not all of which
need be present in any of its recognized instances): nationalism;
hostility to democracy, to egalitarianism, and to the values of the
enlightenment; the cult of the leader, and admiration for his special
qualities; a respect for collective organization, and a love of the
symbols associated with it, such as uniforms, parades and army
discipline."
"The ultimate doctrine contains little that is specific, beyond an
appeal to energy, and action."
Another way to look at fascism is as a movement of extreme racial or
cultural nationalism, combined with economic corporatism and
authoritarian autocracy; masked during its rise to state power by
pseudo-radical populist appeals to overthrow a conspiratorial elitist
regime; spurred by a strong charismatic leader whose reactionary ideas
are said to organically express the will of the masses who are urged
to engage in a heroic collective effort to attain a metaphysical goal
against the machinations of a scapegoated demonized adversary.
In any case, in most definitions of fascism the themes of conspiracism
and a needed scapegoat emerge.
In recent years the four main centers of paranoid conspiracism and
scapegoating on the right have been the John Birch Society, the
Liberty Lobby, the LaRouchians, and the right-wing Christian
fundamentalist sector of the movement known as the New Right.
The most useful general sources of information on U.S. right-wing
conspiracy theories and the basis for understanding the role of
reductionism and scapegoating in these movements are: Richard
Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" (New York:
Knopf, 1965); George Johnson, "Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories
and Paranoia in American Politics" (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Houghton
Mifflin, 1983); and Frank P. Mintz, "The Liberty Lobby and the
American Right: Race, Conspiracy, and Culture" (Westport, CT:
Greenwood, 1985).
For a lengthy discussion of scapegoating and witch hunts, see the
September/October issue of with a special section on "Credulity,
Superstition, and Fanaticism,> which includes the author's article on
the far right's scapegoating of secular humanism.
For a deeper understanding of fascism and its use of scapegoating,
see: A. J. Nichols, "Weimar and the Rise of Hitler" (New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1979), Daniel Guerin, "Fascism and Big Business" (New
York: Monad Press/Pathfinder, 1973), James Joes, "Fascism in the
Contemporary World: Ideology, Evolution, Resurgence" (Boulder:
Westview, 1978).>
-Chip Berlet, analyst Political Research Associates 678
Massachusetts Ave, #702 Cambridge, MA 02139
Write for our list of publications including bibliographies
________ END OF FORWARDED POSTING ___________-
From
cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uwm.edu!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!o
hstpy!miavx1!miamiu!pmschull Fri Oct 9 12:25:24 PDT 1992 Article:
11680 of alt.activism
Path:
oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uwm.edu!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.
edu!ohstpy!miavx1!miamiu!pmschull
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Re: NLNS: CHRISTIAN IDENTITY (UPDATED V Message-ID:
<92282.092346PMSCHULL@MIAMIU.BITNET> From:
Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 1992 09:23:46 EDT
References: <9209301854.AA02095@igc.apc.org> <1296500400@igc.apc.org>
Organization: Miami University - Academic Computer Service
Lines: 19
So according to Chip "fascism" is a term which "has little in common"
from application to application. In other words: a term with no
denotation, only connotation. That is, a purely propagandistic term.
Suitable for old Chip. And his attacks on LaRouche. On Reason. Etc .
But if one looks at Fiscism Germany, Fascism Italy, Fascist Bulgaria,
etc. etc. one can_if one uses one's intellect_see the essential
identity: an intense degree of austerity. The slave labor camps of the
NaZis (wherein the Slave Workers were worked to death in 30 - 270
days, depending on the era and place_longer life expectancies early,
1933, in German less later, 1940s Poland) were most salient. But
Mussolini had an "Environmentalist Project" to empty the cities
(copied by Pol Pot) which he went a large way in doing. Hundreds of
thousands of people were relocated to caves. While few ate cooked food
in Italy in the late 1920s, the massive debt to the bankers was paid
off quickly. (Cf. "Literary Digest" April 1928.) Bulgaria put about
12% of proceeds from sales of industrial goods into wages and
reinvestment_the rest going primarily to financiers, to German
stockholders, etc. Quoting from a "Know-Nothing" dictionary of terms
does not alter the facts of history.
From
cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!cc
svax.sfasu.edu!f_gautjw Sun Oct 11 20:51:52 PDT 1992 Article: 11766 of
alt.activism
Xref: oneb alt.activism:11766 alt.conspiracy:6293
Path:
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From:
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: NLNS: CHRISTIAN IDENTITY (UPDATED V
Message-ID: <1992Oct11.130154.1454@ccsvax.sfasu.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 92 13:01:54 CST
References: <9209301854.AA02095@igc.apc.org> <1296500400@igc.apc.org>
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University
Lines: 72
In article <1296500400@igc.apc.org>, NLG Civil Liberties Committee
writes: >
Thank you for posting your definition(s) of fascism. While helping me
to better understand your broadbrush use of the term fascism, the
definition(s) also raise some new questions.
State-enforced austerity is not a central characteristic of > fascism.
I find this to be an unusual statement. Prosperity has never exactly
been the hallmark of fascist regimes and economics is "central" to any
form of government. Certainly a fascist regime uses pressure to
enforce its state policies, so why wouldn't state-enforced austerity
be a central characteristic of fascism?
Fascism
Chip's definition:
Extreme racial or cultural nationalism combined with economic>
corporatism and authoritarian autocracy; masked during its rise to >
state power by pseudo-radical populist appeals to overthrow a >
conspiratorial elitist regime; spurred by a strong charismatic >
leader whose reactionary ideas are said to organically express the >
will of the masses who are urged to engage in a heroic collective >
effort to attain a metaphysical goal against the machinations of a >
scapegoated demonized adversary.
This definition raises certain questions. Do you consider nationalism
inherently evil? Would you prefer a one-world government? Do you feel
that appreciating and defending one's own culture and cultural values
are somehow primitive instincts that must be overcome by the
educational efforts of the enlightened egalitarians?
Why the "pseudo" in pseudo-radical populist appeals?
What strong charismatic leaders do you see in America today and which
ones do you fear? What "metaphysical" goals do they propose? Can you
name any modern day American scapegoated demonized adversaries other
than the remnants of Randy Weaver's family and other small religious
groups who would like most of all to be left alone?
Definition excepted from "A Dictionary of Political Thought" by
Roger Scruton. (The Macmillan Press, London, 1982, p. 169)
"An amalgam of disparate conceptions...more notable as a political > phenomenon on which diverse intellectual influences converge than > as a distinct idea; as political phenomenon, one of its most > remarkable features has been the ability to win massive popular > support for ideas that are expressly anti-egalitarian."
"Fascism is characterized by the following features (not all of which need be present in any of its recognized instances):
nationalism; hostility to democracy, to egalitarianism, and to the
values of the enlightenment; the cult of the leader, and admiration
for his special qualities; a respect for collective organization, and
a love of the symbols associated with it, such as uniforms, parades
and army discipline."
"The ultimate doctrine contains little that is specific, beyond an
appeal to energy, and action."
Frankly, I think the first definition says much more than the second
"amalgam" definition which seems so non-specific as to include anyone
desired. When you use the word *fascist* are you alluding to the first
or to both definitions?
From
cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu
!sgiblab!sgigate!odin!sgi!cdp!cberlet Wed Oct 7 14:19:24 PDT 1992
Article: 11621 of alt.activism
Path:
oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!spool.
mu.edu!sgiblab!sgigate!odin!sgi!cdp!cberlet
From: NLG Civil Liberties Committee
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Date: 06 Oct 92 21:26 PDT
Subject: Re: NLNS: CHRISTIAN IDENTITY (UPDATED V
Sender: Notesfile to Usenet Gateway
Message-ID: <1296500400@igc.apc.org>
References: <9209301854.AA02095@igc.apc.org>
Nf-ID:
#R:9209301854.AA02095@igc.apc.org:-935955585:cdp:1296500400:000:155 8
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet Oct 6 21:26:00 1992
Lines: 42
State-enforced austerity is not a central characteristic of fascism.
Fascism
Chip's definition:
Extreme racial or cultural nationalism combined with economic
corporatism and authoritarian autocracy; masked during its rise to
state power by pseudo-radical populist appeals to overthrow a
conspiratorial elitist regime; spurred by a strong charismatic leader
whose reactionary ideas are said to organically express the will of
the masses who are urged to engage in a heroic collective effort to
attain a metaphysical goal against the machinations of a scapegoated
demonized adversary.
Definition excepted from "A Dictionary of Political Thought" by Roger
Scruton. (The Macmillan Press, London, 1982, p. 169)
"An amalgam of disparate conceptions...more notable as a political
phenomenon on which diverse intellectual influences converge than as a
distinct idea; as political phenomenon, one of its most remarkable
features has been the ability to win massive popular support for ideas
that are expressly anti-egalitarian."
"Fascism is characterized by the following features (not all of which
need be present in any of its recognized instances): nationalism;
hostility to democracy, to egalitarianism, and to the values of the
enlightenment; the cult of the leader, and admiration for his special
qualities; a respect for collective organization, and a love of the
symbols associated with it, such as uniforms, parades and army
discipline."
"The ultimate doctrine contains little that is specific, beyond an
appeal to energy, and action."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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| Title: Eric Randolph - Right-to-lifer |
29 Mar 2005 12:37:13 PM |
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/29/eric.rudolph.ap/index.html
Prosecutors allege link between Rudolph and anti-abortion figure
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Posted: 1:22 PM EST (1822 GMT)
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) -- Federal prosecutors preparing to try Eric
Rudolph in a fatal abortion clinic blast want to show jurors that the
serial bombing suspect had ties to a Tennessee church led by an
anti-abortion activist.
Rudolph could face the death penalty if convicted in the 1998 Birmingham
bombing, which killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a
nurse.
In court papers filed this past weekend, prosecutors said Rudolph's
"expressed anti-abortion views and his association with anti-abortion
activists will clearly help set the stage for the crime, give it context,
and will help the jury understand the reasons" for it.
The defense objects to the evidence as irrelevant and as a violation of
Rudolph's First Amendment rights.
The defense also is trying to limit evidence about Rudolph's "negative
views about the government, African-Americans, Jews and homosexuals,"
according to the government. Prosecutors claim such attitudes were
"inextricably linked" to Rudolph's views against abortion.
A hearing on the proposed evidence was set Tuesday in Huntsville.
Preliminary jury selection for Rudolph's trial is set for April 6. Opening
statements may not begin until early June.
Rudolph also is accused of setting the bomb that killed a woman during the
Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and bombings in metro Atlanta in 1997, including
one that targeted a gay nightclub. He was captured in 2003 after more than
five years on the run.
Prosecutors indicated they want to introduce testimony about Rudolph's
association with a fundamentalist church in Benton, Tennessee, led by Dr.
John Grady, an early activist against abortion in Florida.
In a telephone interview Monday, Grady, 74, told The Associated Press he
did not recall Rudolph ever visiting his small congregation, "but that
certainly doesn't mean he didn't." The congregation, which he described as
Catholic, lacks a full-time priest, and Grady said he serves as a lay
leader.
Grady, who has written a booklet offered for sale by anti-abortion groups,
said he is "very much opposed to abortion" and called it the "crime of the
century." But implying that his beliefs could fuel Rudolph to bomb an
abortion clinic is "really stretching it," he said.
Grady said he does not expect to testify in Rudolph's trial.
Separately, prosecutors suggested Rudolph may have financed the bombing by
growing marijuana around his home in western North Carolina.
--
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