HOLOCAUST Handbooks, Vol. 4: Jiirgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno
and its Function in National Socialist Jewish Policy
The concentration camp at Stutthof near Danzig in western Prussia is another camp which had never been sci- entifically investigated by Western historians. Officially sanctioned Polish authors long maintained that in 1944, Stutthof was converted to an "auxiliary extermination camp" with the mission of carrying out the lurid, so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem." Now, Jiirgen Graf and Carlo Mattogno have subjected this concept of Stutthoff to rigorous critical investigation based on Polish literature and documents from various archives.
Their investigations lead to unambiguous conclusions about the camp which are radically different from the official theses. Again they have produced a standard and methodical investigative work which authentic historiography can not ignore. 122 pp. pb, 6"x9", b/w & color ill., bibl., index, $/€15.-/£10.-
HOLOCAUST Handbooks, Vol. 5: Jiirgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno
Majdanek
A Historical and Technical Study
Amazingly, little scientific investigation had been directed toward the concentration camp Lublin-Majdanek in central Poland, even though orthodox Holocaust sources claimed that between fifty thousand and over a mil- lion Jews were murdered there. The only information available from public libraries is thoroughly discredited Polish Communists propaganda.
This glaring research gap has finally been filled. After exhaustive research of primary sources, Mattogno and Graf created a monumental study which expertly dissects and repudiates the myth of homicidal gas chambers at Majdanek. They also investigated the legendary mass executions of Jews in tank trenches ("Operation Harvest Festival") critically and prove them groundless.
The authors' investigations lead to unambiguous conclusions about the camp which are radically different from the official theses. Again they have produced a standard and methodical investigative work which authentic historiography can not ignore. 320 pp pb, A5, 6"x9", b/w & color ill., bibl., index, $/€25.-/f 18.-
holocaust Handbooks, Vol. 6: Don Heddesheimer
The Fteji ^Au^mmt
J ewish Fund Raising Campaigns With Holocaust Claims During And After World War I
We all know that the suffering and death of Six Million Jews during the second world war was an event unparalleled in world history. But do we really?
The First Holocaust is an extremely irritating book, because it proves us all wrong. Supported with many publications from mainstream US media, in particular The New York Times, Don Heddesheimer provides the evidence to show that between 1916 and the late 1920s, mainly American Jewish organizations were claiming that up to six million Jews(\) would suffer terribly in poverty stricken Eastern Europe.
In this context, it was claimed that eastern European Jewry would face a Holocaust if they did not receive massive aid. With such claims, millions of dollars were raised in the United States, which at the end were prob- ably used to finance the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
This book is a key to understand the much more successful Holocaust propaganda which was unleashed during World War II. September 2003, ca. 140 pp. pb., 6"x9", ill., bibl., index, $/€9.95-/£7.-
Stutthof
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HOLOCAUST Handbooks, Vol. I.Arthur R. Butz
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The Case A gainst the Presumed Extermination of E uropean J ewry
With his book Hoax of the Twentieth Century, A. R. Butz, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was the first (and so far the only) writer to treat the entire Holocaust complex from the Revisionist perspective, in a precise scientific manner. This book exhibits the overwhelming force of historical and logical arguments which Revisionism had accumulated by the middle of the 70s. It was the first book published in the US which won for Revisionism the academic dignity to which it is entitled. It continues to be a major revisionist reference work, frequently cited by prominent personalities.
Because of its prestige, no library can forbear offering The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, and no historian of modern times can ignore it. A "must read" for every Revisionist and every newcomer to the issue who wants to thoroughly learn about revisionist arguments. This issue is a revised version with a new preface.
September 2003, ca. 480 pp. pb, 6"x9", ill., bibl., index, $/€25.-; £18.-
Order now! CHP, POB 257768, Chicago, IL 60625, USA; chporder@vho.org; www.tadp.org
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Rachel Corrie, 1979-2003
Rachel, a nonviolent peace activist, was killed when an Israeli soldier bulldozed her. She was trying to stop the demolition of a physician's family home in Palestine.
If Americans Knew - 510-655-6384 ~ ifamericansknew@yahoo.com - 3284-B Adeline St., Berkeley, CA 94703
9/11: Arab or Government Terror? Ghost Riders in the Sky, p. 248 Cell Phones in Airliners, p. 271 On the Inept U.S. Air Defense, p. 273
The War on Iraq Reviewed:
A War Conceived in Israel, p. 285
The Revisionist Method Applied, p. 299
Why the US rejects the ICC: War Crimes Made in USA, p. 301
■4^ How Israel Murders Peace:
Murder of Rachel Corrie, pp. 308-312
Foreign Workers in the 3rd Reich: A Different Facet of Reality, p. 312
Partisan Warfare during WWII: Reprisal, Excess, Propaganda, p. 321
Gypsies at Auschwitz: Were they gassed?, p. 330
Raul Hilberg's Incurable Autism: Ignoring 20 Years of Research, p. 344
The Revisionist •) ournal for Critical Historical Inquiry
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HOLOCAUST Handbooks, Vol. 3: JUrgen Graf
The GIANT with Feet of Clay
Raul Hilberg and his Standard Work on the "Holocaust'
Raul Hilberg's major work The Destruction of European Jewry is generally considered the standard work on the Holocaust. The critical reader might ask: what evidence does Hilberg provide to back his thesis that there was a German plan to exterminate Jews, to be carried out in the legendary gas chambers? And what evidence supports his estimate of 5.1 million Jewish victims? Jurgen Graf applies the methods of critical analysis to Hilberg's evidence and examines the results in the light of Revisionist historiography. The results of Graf's critical analysis are devastating for Hilberg.
Graf's Giant With Feet of Clay is the first comprehensive and systematic examination of the leading spokesperson for the orthodox version of the Jewish fate during the Third Reich. 160 pp. pb, 6"x9", ill., bibl., index, $/€ 9.95-; £7.-
Contents
George Bush versus Revisionism 244
By Richard A. Widmann
Revisionist Notebook 245
By Bradley Smith
9/11: Terror Attack or Government Fraud?
Ghost Riders in the Sky ■ An Alternative 9-11 Scenario, by Prof. Dr. Alexander K. Dewdney 248
Cell Phone Experiments in Airliners, by Germar Rudolf 271
Stand Down ■ Was 9/11 Lack of Air Defense Deliberate?, by Mark Elsis 273
The War on Iraq: Conceived in Israel 285
By Stephen J. Sniegoski
The Revisionist Method Applied to the History of World War III 299
By Robert Faurisson
Why the United States Reject the International Criminal Court 301
By Dr. Dieter Bart ling
How Israel Murders Peace
Israeli Bulldozer Driver Murders American Peace Activist, by Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed 308
Eulogy to Rachel, by Colonel Maguire 310
How German and American Money is Spent in Israel, by German Rudolf 311
Foreign Workers in the Third Reich 312
By OSTR Hans-Jiirgen Witzsch
Partisan War and Reprisal Killings 321
By Dipl.-Chem. Germar Rudolf and Sibylle Schroder
The "Gassing" of Gypsies in Auschwitz on August 2, 1944 330
By Carlo Mattogno
A Case Study of Holocaust Revisionism and the Mass Media 332
By Paul Grubach
Against the Revisionists, Argumentation ad hominem 336
By Dr. Robert Faurisson
Book Reviews
Battlefield Patriotism, by Scott L. Smith 339
"Genocide " by Shovel and Sewing Machine, by Scott L. Smith 340
Gestapo USA, by Germar Rudolf 342
Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, by Francis Dixon 343
Raul Hilberg's Incurable Autism, by Jiirgen Graf. 344
Book Notices, by Francis Dixon 557
Research News
From the Records of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, Part 3, by Germar Rudolf. 352
Letters to the Editor 358
In Brief. 359
The Revisionist ■ 2003 • Volume 1 ■ No. 3 243
George Bush versus Revisionism
By Richard A. Widmann
On Monday, June 16, 2003 news headlines across the United States announced the latest target of President George W. Bush's wrath — Revisionist historians. Strangely as Bush was shifting his focus from al Qaeda and Iraq to Iran, he de- cided to take a shot at Revisionists. One headline screamed, "Bush Blasts 'Revisionist Historians' on Iraq." 1 Harry Barnes, the early pioneer of Revisionism once noted that to anti- Revisionists, "the term [Revisionism] savors of malice, vindic- tiveness, and an unholy desire to smear the saviors of man- kind."2 Surely Bush had positioned himself not only as an "anti- Revisionist" but also as a "savior of mankind" for his recent maneuvers in Iraq.
For the sake of this article, I am not interested in Bush's motivations nor am I interested in the case that criticizes Bush's intentions. I am interested only in the attack on Revisionism it- self. Bush's attack suggests incorrectly an attribute of falsifica- tion to Revisionism. It is critical to understand that Revisionism is not vindictive and neither does it falsify history. It's been said that all good history by necessity is Revisionist history. Revisionists have never sought to falsify history. They do seek however to rehabilitate the truth and to discover the underlying causes of wars.
Bush took his shot at Revisionists in response to those who have expressed doubt about the official justification for the war in Iraq. In a speech given to a group of New Jersey business leaders, Bush lashed out:3
"Now there are some who would like to rewrite history:
revisionist historians is what I like to call them. "
Showing that Bush really did take issue with Revisionists, he made similar remarks one day later while speaking at a community college in a Washington suburb:4
"I know there 's a lot of revisionist history going on. But
he [Saddam Hussein] is no longer a threat to the free
world. "
Reporters seeking clarification asked Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer what Bush meant by "revisionist history." Fleischer responded:5
"The notion that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction before the war. "
Fleischer's definition however proves less than satisfactory. To best understand what this recent flap is all about, it is best to return to Harry Elmer Barnes. Barnes defined "Revisionism" as follows:6
"Revisionism means nothing more or less than the effort to correct the historical record in the light of a more com- plete collection of historical facts, a more calm political at- mosphere, and a more objective attitude. " Revisionists understand that history is often shaped by what is read during wartime but that this often bears little resem- blance to reality. In wartime, emotions and propaganda often prevent us from getting a clear picture of the actual events — never mind the causes and motivations for such events.
Bush's comment, "I know there's a lot of revisionist history going on. But he [Saddam Hussein] is no longer a threat to the
free world" is disingenuous. Although Bush is correct in his lat- ter point about Hussein, this in no way proves Bush's implica- tion. Bush had made the accusation that Hussein needed to be removed from power because he was developing a program of weapons of mass-destruction (WMD's). If this was the reason, and it can be shown that no WMD's in fact existed, then the war itself would be unjustified.
In the days leading up to the war, the propaganda being is- sued from the White House was unfocused and apparently seeking to find the note that would resonate best with the American people. We heard of Hussein's brutality against his own people; we heard of the WMD's; we heard of links to al Qaeda and international terrorism. Ultimately however, it was the vaguely defined WMD program which won the day with references to the 1988 gassing of Kurds.7 By extension, post 9- 11 Americans drew frightening images of themselves being gassed and of course stirred their collective memory of the fan- tastic legends of Nazi gassings during the Second World War. Hussein had been positioned as a modern day "Hitler." This "Hitler" was not the Hitler of history but the Hitler of popular legend and myth. This was Hitler with the devil's pitchfork in hand.8
The world may well be a safer place with Saddam Hussein out of power. The administration's inept propaganda and lack of proof that Iraq had WMD's however is worthy of analysis by historians. Perhaps Iraq did have such weapons and they are simply well hidden in the desert. Perhaps Iraq did not possess the weapons but Bush truly believed they did — a consideration with its own frightening conclusions. Or perhaps the entire story was a fabrication developed for public consumption.9
The truth regarding these events and the motivations to unleash American might against Iraq will one day be written. It may take years for documents to be declassified, but at that time it will be known what caused this latest destruction of hu- man life. Make no mistake about it, when that day comes, the books that will be written, will be written by Revisionist histo- rians. History will once again be set into accord with the facts. This is something that can only be done be rewriting the official tales spun by politicians and their spokesmen. Revisionism has always served this role. Only through knowledge of the facts concerning international relations and the causes for war can we truly bolster our hope for prosperity, security and peace in the years ahead. Bush is wrong to think that Revisionists are out to smear him; they are just doing what they've always done, discrediting lies and myths that form a barrier to peace and goodwill among nations.
Notes
1 Randall Mikkelsen, "Bush Blasts 'Revisionist historians' on Iraq," Yahoo! News, June 16,2003;
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030616/ts_nm/ira q_usa_bush_dc_7
2 Harry Elmer Barnes, "Revisionism and the Promotion of Peace", in: Barnes Against the Blackout: Essays Against Interventionism, Institute for histori- cal review, Costa Mesa, California, 1991, p. 273.
244
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
3 Mikkelsen.
4 Scott Lindlaw, "Bush Again Defends Rationale for Iraq War," Yahoo! News, June 17, 2003;
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030617/ap_on_go pr_wh/bush_5 9
5 Ibid.
6 Barnes, p. 273.
7 The charge of Hussein's gassing of the Kurdish people is unproven. In fact this charge is very controversial. It has even been suggested that Iran in fact gassed the Kurds and not Iraq. For additional information see: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article 1 779.htm
8 There were many such articles and letters written comparing Saddam Hus-
sein to Adolf Hitler. This became a popular sentiment. A few of these in- clude: "Hitler and Hussein and the Lesson of History," http://www.mikehersh.com/Hitler_Hussein_and_History.shtml and "Of Hit- ler and Hussein," http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/919790.asp and "Saddam Hussein - could he be another Adolf Hitler?" http://www.stp.uh.edu/vol63/89/OpEd2/8921 198/8921 198.html On the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction, it is now acknowledged that even Colin Powell had serious doubts about Iraq's weapons claims. See "Straw, Powell had serious doubts over their Iraqi weapons claims: Secret Transcript revealed."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,967548,00.html
Revisionist Notebook
By Bradley Smith
Boneheads at Auschwitz Museum Admit to Faking "Original State" of Auschwitz Gas Chamber.
For the best part of half a century the official guides who work at the Auschwitz Museum have told visitors from around the world that the "gas chamber" at Auschwitz I is in its "origi- nal state." That's the one everyone visits. No telling how many people — millions? — have heard this from the official tour guides. Tens of millions all over the earth have read, or been told, that Auschwitz I is in its "original" state. We have a cou- ple of those people on a 1994 video tape telling a group of visi- tors exactly that — in English. 1 God only knows what they were saying in Polish.
Revisionists pointed out some thirty years ago, and have re- peated it endlessly, that the claim is, well, a demonstrable lie. It is a lie that is so easy to demonstrate that one would think only the stupid, or those committed to the demonization of Germans, would attempt to propagate it. I suspect it is the latter. The peo- ple who run the Museum, and who support it, find that there is nothing they are unwilling to say, or do, to forward the charge of unique German monstrosity.
Now, without fanfare, the Auschwitz Museum has added a little note to its spiel about the phony "gas chamber" at Ausch- witz I on its Web site:2
MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM
AUSCHWITZ-BIRK
mn i
Gas Chamber and Crematorium
C igni,i>:-',ni r nmcHnrf nam *uuu-;l 1*p 1 m In Julr 1 II 3 lh» luiyn'jl nnm in INI buuiing W99 «m_m4 99 ■ manjua '!* tn» MAitrvt of WH , rt WM jainmi!ir.fni:l(.'t...[i«nll nlKhSmtUr hUBn SW-M3.. r. lu ilf timjlmidi sf mmtr irnird Jrm, « <mll «i srreisl jnnugi ti
fnj .,vtn iMtlri hamuii«rflripifT4iulilfe*K,uj irtuin tr miK im wfi MIIm in tv a.is rhjrroc* Pnln *.*nfrnr*d In tirati hvm* dtrniqn vuminrv cnuM wvib i liul hanr
AflfrHin fttfawshnwrf TiAiKLJiWErtaiilKfi&dafjMmMniuiMuiiiijJ tm I H--W ^u-i pifU tlij I mi i-^ =.unns and s jmiit-h.
The official Auschwitz Website
"After the war, the Museum carried out a partial recon- struction. The chimney and two incinerators were rebuilt using original components, as were several of the openings in the gas chamber roof. "
One more detail to the unraveling of the Auschwitz story. Until a few years ago we were told, and told again and again, that the German monsters at Auschwitz had murdered "four million" Jews. This story was so incredibly stupid that even the boneheads at the Museum decided it would be better to aban- don it. The press in America and Europe showed every sign of being willing to go on for another half century to repeat the four-million figure, but they were deprived of that pleasure by the growing shame that those who had promoted the story for so long must have felt, knowing that it was a lie. Not a "false- hood." A lie.
Now the Auschwitz Museum boneheads tell us about "one million" Jews were killed there. As the truth would have it, we don't know how many Jews were killed at Auschwitz. It may have been a dozen or so. Maybe more. One thing appears cer- tain. None were killed in "gas chambers," not one was killed as part of an organized attempt at genocide. None. Zip.
If you work for the New York Times, say, you bought the "four-million-extemiinated-Jews-at-Auschwitz" lie from the Auschwitz boneheads for half a century. You also bought the lie about the "original state" of the Auschwitz "gas chamber" for close to half a cen- tury. I don't want to be a cause for the folks at the Times to get too deeply introspective over this mat- ter. Every other paper in America followed what- ever line the Auschwitz boneheads dished out to them, not just the Times.
I wonder what the Elie Wiesels will have to say about this little, but very telling, story. They must be slapping their foreheads over this one. Still, it will take years for the significance of this new confes- sion of personal and historical shame to leak into the press. The Elie Wiesels and their handlers know how to handle the press. First you buy it, then you program it, then you manage it. Nothing to it. The Auschwitz bonehead factor can be handled.
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 • No. 3
245
Palestinian President a Holocaust Revisionist
"An almost empty Israeli Knesset (parliament) voted Tuesday to 'pursue' all Holocaust deniers, in a motion which singled out the new Palestinian prime minister Mah- mud Abbas. The late-night motion, brought by the far-right National Union party, was passed by 13 votes to five in the 120-seat Knesset, president of the parliamentary law com- mission Michael Eytan said on public television.
He stressed that the vote has no binding effect in law.
Abbas once wrote a doctoral thesis at the university of Moscow on the theme of 'the secret ties between Nazism and Zionism ' in which he denied that the Nazi Holocaust had cost the lives of six million Jews, talking instead of 'less than a million '. "3
While Abbu Mazen, aka Mahmud Abbas, the new Palestin- ian prime minister, is a Holocaust revisionist, the left is not at- tacking him as a "hater." That's how thought works. The seam- less integration of the homely with the significant. It's so liquid that it's difficult to notice. Politicos and intellectuals, the gurus, make it a practice to not notice. I have discovered only recently that J. Krishnamurti, one of my highly principled heroes, was screwing his best friend's wife and covering it up. His whole high-falutin circle helped in the cover-up. What were they thinking! Imagine if we were able to observe what really goes on in the minds of the powerful, the influential, our role mod- els. The world would turn upside down.
Many on the left argue for the "human rights" of Palestini- ans and against Israeli occupation of Palestine. All those on the left argue against intellectual freedom for Holocaust revision- ists, as if wanting to be free to say what you think is not a "hu- man" right. At the same time, to forward its cracked political agenda of human "rights," the left has nothing to say about Abu Marzun's Holocaust revisionism. If you're a widely known Palestinian, you can argue that something is very wrong with the Holocaust story. If you're an ordinary American — or, even worse, if you are an ordinary European — you risk everything when you mention it. The politics of the left.
America's Most Wanted Criminal Caught after 5 Years
Eric Rudolph, the fellow arrested in North Carolina on sus- picion of being responsible for four bombings, including the at- tack at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, wrote a paper when he was in junior high school claiming that the "Holocaust never happened."4 Maybe at that youthful age he was still interested in intellectual issues, and had not yet decided to just kill the people who he believed were doing something wrong (I know — he's innocent until proved guilty).
In addition to Holocaust denial, Rudolph has been associ- ated with Christian Identity people, a sect based on an imagina- tive reading of Christian sacred texts. Because there is no end to human variation, there is no end to the interpretation of sa- cred texts, and no end to people who might take such interpre- tations to heart. Christian Identity people circulate in revisionist circles. Nice guys and gals for the most part. They can tell you in detail about how the historical migrations of the Israelites led them to the British Isles where they became Englishmen.
Identity people don't trust Jews, don't often like them, and for the most part wish them ill. This is a perfectly rational atti-
tude if you believe what they believe about the Bible, the ser- pent, Cain, and the rest of that Jewish story. It's in the same ballpark as the idea some Jews have about how 3,000 years ago Cain's father gave them some dirt in the Middle East to keep forever and ever.
Those of us who believe that revisionism can, and should, play an important role in American culture would do well to distinguish revisionist theory itself from those who are drawn to it out of interests that are eccentric at best and far too ambi- tious. Their ambition is no less dangerous than that of those who nurture and exploit the taboo that protects the Holocaust story from disinterested examination.
Those who would dismiss revisionist theory because some exploit it for their own purposes should keep in mind that it is not the Christian Identity people, for example, who do the kill- ing for us. It's Republicans and Democrats. Always. Not the "haters," but Democrats and Republicans — good folk all.
Brainwashing and Brain-Cleaning
A reader in New Jersey writes that his interest in revision- ism has been reawakened upon discovering that his daughter is being force-fed Holocaust "tripe" in her eighth-grade public school class. It culminated with mandatory attendance at a showing of Spielberg's shoddy movie Schindler's List, which in turn is based on a cheap Australian novel. He writes:
"Failure to watch the thing would result in all sorts of punishment assignments including papers and what have you. So after using five class periods to watch Schindler, they had two periods where teachers crammed more Holo- caust facts ' at them. That was after spending the day be- fore listening to a Holocaust survivor prattle on about the 11 (eleven) million. Here are the facts ' that the New Jersey public schools are teaching our children in the 8th grade. Eleven million — that 's 6 million Jews plus 5 million others. Gas chambers. Human soap made from dead Jews. Tattoos cut off Jewish prisoners and used as artwork to decorate various buildings. And my favorite (as I am sure it would be a favorite of Samuel Crowell5) — when the victims were be- ing gassed their adrenaline was so high that they would use their fingernails to scratch and claw words into the con- crete walls of the 'gas chambers. '
What would the victims actually scratch into the walls while they were being gassed? T was gassed. '?
Well, I wanted to hold back, but it set me over the edge. I had to explain the 'Gas Chamber of Sherlock Holmes ' to my daughter. Before long we were watching David Cole 's interview with Dr. Franciszek Piper. At least to my own 8th grader, the nonsense is becoming obvious. " So the State of New Jersey is exhibiting a Hollywood movie, based on a novel, to teach eighth grade students Holo- caust 'history.' Who benefits from such a disingenuous exer- cise? Follow the struggle for cultural hegemony. Follow the money.
Are the Gurus Irrelevant?
Watching the Fox channel this Sunday morning. After the usual discussion with Brit Hume and the other guys is finished
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for the week, the California (Carpentaria) Buddhist guru comes on. Can't recall his name. About the first thing he says is: "It is not what you do, it's who you are." That's an issue that inter- ests me for the moment and I look around in the kitchen for a pencil to make a note of it. By the time I find a pencil I'm not certain if he said what I first thought he said, or if he said: "It is not who you are but what you do."
Now that I have the pencil to hand I have a free moment, and that's about all it takes, to wonder how I can differentiate who I am from what I do? Who I am is what I do, and what I do is who I am. What's the difference? If I do something inex- pressibly stupid it would be nice to be able to say: "Sure, I did that, but it wasn't me." If it wasn't me, who the hell was it?
When the devout Muslim, following his reading of the sa- cred texts, intentionally blows up a bus to kill the Jews riding it, he can say "Yes, I did it, but that's not really who I am. If the Jews of Israel would withdraw to this line in the sand, or that one, and leave me alone, I would do something else and be a different fellow altogether." Meanwhile, however, he's a de- vout Muslim who randomly kills Jews riding Israeli buses. That's what he does, that's who he is.
Same for those Jews of Israel who take land for themselves that belongs to Palestinians. They justify it by readings from their sacred texts, or from one or another political or moral perspec- tive. Still, they remain who they are, Jews greedy for Palestinian land who continue to take it for themselves. And the irony is that the more devout they are, the greedier they are apt to be.
The American president is a devout man himself. He has his own reading of the sacred texts. I don't know what his reading is, but those who we call, and call themselves, "Christian Zion- ists," appear to believe that the American president understands what the correct reading of the texts should be. He may have discovered the correct reading shortly after being, as he put it, "born again."
One thing is certain in all this. If we follow the gurus — Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or any of the rest of them — we'll keep to the path we have followed for five or ten thousand years. The path that urges an eye for an eye. The path that illustrates through deeds that might makes right; the path demonstrating that, no matter which culture you had the good fortune to be born into, your gurus are smarter and know more about God than the gurus in all other cultures, no matter how much devotion is paid to them.
It can be argued that no one has followed the path of the gu- rus in any culture, and that if we had we would have a different world. I reply with the obvious. After five or ten thousand years listening to the gurus, it must be obvious that they are irrele- vant. More accurately — they are downright dangerous. Just consider the joy in the streets of Gaza City when Jewish civil- ians are intentionally murdered by devout Muslims; the cigar- smoking, self-satisfaction in Tel Aviv when the Apache gun ships successfully kill Arabs who are struggling to free their homeland of Jewish conquerors; the frustration in Washington to see Jews being killed along with Palestinians instead of only Palestinians.
No use going on about it. That's who we are. It's not going to change. We are all driven to hope that it will change. We want to do what we can to see that it does change. But we are
who we are, and what we do, and since being and doing is the same thing, it just doesn't look very good for us.
NY Personality Favors Penalties for "Thought Crimes"
Rudolf Giuliani writes that the world, and particularly Europe, is experiencing a surge in anti-Semitic violence.6 He notes that anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred in Western culture, and that the "Holocaust" proves it. He argues that this being the case, "Making sure [Europe's] citizens have an honest under- standing of the Holocaust is vital, as revisionist viewpoints put us at risk of a repetition of race-based genocide."
Revisionist viewpoints are the viewpoint of me and some of my friends — not all my friends are revisionists, and not all revi- sionists are my friends. In any event, Rudolf Giuliani believes that I am one of those putting Europe, if not the whole world, at risk of experiencing a "race-based genocide."
This is just a little too stupid (a phrase I picked up from Proust and like to use), but it is the commonplace understand- ing of revisionism among our cultural and political elites.
At the Vienna conference Giuliani is going to recommend that Europeans track hate crimes and recognize them as "dis- tinct" from other crimes, like murder, assault or vandalism, that such information must be analyzed and acted upon, and that special hate crimes legislation must be passed.
Giuliani doesn't mention "thought crimes." In most Euro- pean countries, revisionist theory is already a "thought crime," one for which you can be ruined, or jailed, or persecuted and prosecuted year after year after year. Giuliani, being a product (as he tells us) of the ethnic diversity of Brooklyn, of New York City and Jewish culture and politics, has been taught to believe that revisionist theory about the Holocaust story can lead to genocidal mass murder, therefore it must be a "hate" crime to question the gas-chamber stories. So much for the inherent value of ethnic diversity in Brooklyn.
In Canada, Ernst Zundel has been in prison for months be- cause he is a Holocaust revisionist. So Canada is safe for the moment. In America, Germar Rudolf, who has just published The Rudolf Report: Expert Report on Chemical and Technical Aspects of the "Gas Chambers " of Auschwitz? has been sen- tenced to prison in Germany for thought crimes. I wonder what Giuliani would think of making it a thought crime to do a scien- tific chemical analysis of wall scrapings from a building in some place other than Poland?
Well, it would depend on which building, wouldn't it? For some buildings, it would be okay. Others — well, you could get four, five years in the jug if you do that and come up with the "wrong" results. It could be a "hate" crime. There are some walls, in some buildings, at some locations, where you better not analyze the chemical compounds in the walls. Because what you find there could reveal that what is supposed to be there is not there, and what is not supposed to be there is there, which would lead to a race-based genocide of — whom? Our Jewish friends? Yet one more time, eh?
Giuliani writes:
"One of the functions of the law is to teach, to draw
lines between what 's permissible and what 's forbidden. "
So — we had better draw a line between revisionist theories on the one hand and the orthodox theory about the Holocaust as
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it is taught by the professors. We must forbid revisionist theo- ries. We must make it impermissible for revisionists to publish the results of their work. We must forbid professors to teach it, students to study it, and the public to hear about it via media. All those things are thought crimes — or — in this culture driven by a sullied liberalism, "hate" crimes.
That's the purpose of the Holocaust Industry. Giuliani re- veals himself as a spokesman for that Industry, which special- izes in censorship and the suppression of intellectual freedom of one historical question. Who benefits? You say you would like to know? Follow the money.
If you believe that the Holocaust taboo should be chal- lenged, and that the taboo — the taboo itself — which prohibits an open debate about the U.S. alliance with Israel is wrong, please pitch in a few bucks to help me create a public context in which these shadowy taboos are uncovered to the light of day. Thanks.
Notes
1 "David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciszek Piper, Director, Auschwitz State Museum" , VHS Video, distributed by CODOH, P.O. Box 439016, San Diego, CA 92143, USA (online: codoh.com/cole.ra (includes audio)); for the abridged text-only version, see: David Cole, "A Jewish Revisionist's Visit to Auschwitz", JHR 13(2) (1993), pp. 1 1-13 (online: co- doh.com/gcgv/gcgvcole.html (excerpt))
2 www.auschwitz- muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/zwiedzanie/krematorium_l.html
3 "Knesset Votes to Pursue Holocaust Deniers, Including New Palestinian Prime Minister", Agence France Presse, May 2 1 , 2003 ; Inquiry and Analy- sis Series, No. 95, May 30, 2002; Mahmud Abbas, The Other Side: The Se- cret Relations between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement, PhD dissertation, Moscow Oriental College, 1983.
4 JTA, June 2, 2003; cf. www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/rudolph.htm
5 www.codoh.com/incon/inconshrl23.html
6 New York Times, June 1 7, 2003 .
7 Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2003. The book can be order from the publisher of this magazine, see back cover.
9/11: Terror Attack or Government Fraud?
On the Flourishing Conspiracy Theories Surrounding the Attacks on America
Everybody knows the official version of what happened on September 1 1 , 200 1 . However, a short search of the Internet reveals that there are many individuals who disagree about this version. Some only doubt the official version that these attacks came as a complete surprise, without any prior warning allowing for any defense or precautionary measures. Others, however, go far beyond this. Was flight 93 that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania shot down by a U.S. fighter? Were the planes that flew into the WTC towers really flown by Arab terrorist, or were they flown by re- mote control? Did the towers collapse as a result of damage inflicted upon them by impact and fire, or were they dy- namited? Did a Boeing 767 crash into the Pentagon, or was it a totally different plane, or maybe even a missile?
When it comes to 9/11, conspiracy theories go wild. After so many uncovered U.S. Government lies during the past century, the community of those willing to believe in anything, if it just contradicts what Washington tells us, is grow- ing faster than ever. Maybe even the U.S. Secret Services have their fingers in this game of producing rumors and more or less plausible sounding theories contradicting the official version. It would help covering the truth behind a confus- ing smoke screen of hundreds of conflicting theories. This tactic proved very effective regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The skeptic reader needs to be all the more careful when confronted with alternative theories. The following will discuss two of them, the first one of them having the advantage that every reader can check it out.
Ghost Riders in the Sky • An Alternative 9-11 Scenario
By Prof. Dr. Alexander K. Dewdney
A cell phone works only, if its signal is picked up by a nearby relay tower and if it stays for a minimum period of time within the range of this relay tower, so that a stable connection between the phone and the tower can be established and maintained. For this reason, it has been a problem for cell phone networks to maintain a stable connection to cell phones traveling in cars at high cruising speed of 70 mph (112 km/h) and more. It is also generally acknowledged that cell phones do not work when they are miles above a network, which is why they do not work in planes cruising at high altitude.
During the tragic events of September 11, 2001, many cell phone calls where made from the hijacked airplanes to various des- tinations on the ground. In particular United Airlines flight 93, which finally crashed in Pennsylvania, is of interest here, because so many phone calls were made from this plane, which were all successful, despite the plane's altitude and high cruising speed. In- troduced by a series of experiments with cell phones in air planes at various heights and backed-up by testimonies from experts and laymen, the following article investigates whether or not these phone calls were technically possible, and if not, how they could be explained.
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Project Achilles
'Project Achilles' Report • Part One — January 23, 2003 Preliminary Low-Altitude Cell Phone Experiment
January 23, 2003; 4:35 - 5:40 pm; Civic Airport, London, Ontario, Canada
Equipment:
Aircraft: Diamond DA20/C1 Katana two-seater; engine: 125 hp fiberglass/carbon fiber composite body & airframe; weight fully loaded: 1630 lbs
Cell phones: one Motorola model "120 CDMA" cell phone (A); two Motorola "ilOOO plus" cell phones (B) (both fully charged at flight time)
The flight plan consisted of four 'laps,' elongated circuits (shaped like a paperclip) over London, Ontario, airspace. Each lap was about seven to eight miles long and two to three miles wide. Three calls were made on each of two straight legs in each lap. Calls alternated between cell phone A and cell phone B. A second ilOOO, intended for use at higher altitudes, slipped to the cockpit floor and could not be retrieved in those cramped quarters. A check of battery levels of the first ilOOO, however, showed that there had been no significant power drain on the unit.
After the third call, I decided that the cockpit was too noisy to hear the message system, so I changed my plan and called home (my wife), instead.
Calls to the business number were recorded by the message
Tl : Results Cell Phone High Altitude Experiment #1 Lap 1 @ 1,100 feet altitude:
1st leg: |
A to business number B to business number A to business number |
no connection? 1 min. complete 1 min. complete |
2nd leg: |
B to home number A to home number B to home number |
no connection? (broken) complete complete |
Lap 2 @ 2,100 feet altitude: |
||
1st leg: |
A to home number B to home number A to home number |
no connection? no voice, just a 'beep' no connection? |
2nd leg: |
B to home number A to home number B to home number |
1 min. complete no voice no voice |
Lap 3 @ 3,100 feet altitude: |
||
1st leg: |
A to home number B to home number |
missed making the call "system busy" |
A to home number |
incomplete |
|
2nd leg: |
B to home number A to home number B to home number |
"please wait: CLEARNET" incomplete call made late, incomplete |
Lap 4 @ 3,500 feet altitude: |
||
A to home number B to home number |
incomplete complete, but breaking up |
system. Two calls made it through. Of the 17 calls to the home number, only about ten calls got through. In three of these, we had a conversation (of sorts) and the rest were just white noise. (No record of which.)
Summary
In the preliminary test, only five of the 16 (attempted) calls resulted in any meaningful voice contact. In at least two of those calls, no connection whatever could be established with cell sites below. The composition of the Diamond Katana (manufactured right here in London, Ontario) makes it almost transparent to EM radiation at radio wavelengths and the results of this experiment are therefore optimal. Aircraft with metal skins will undoubtedly fare rather worse in the percentage of calls making it through.
Altitude Ranj |
;e |
Range in Feet |
Success Rate |
Success Rate |
low altitude |
(1,100'- 2,100') |
4/12 |
33% |
|
mid altitude |
(3100' -3500') |
1/7 |
14% |
Note: "altitude" means aboveground altitude, not height above sea level, as re- corded by the altimeter.
Conclusion
The purpose of this experiment was to probe the effect of altitude on cell phone service and to iron out wrinkles in ex- perimental procedure. In the first instance, it looks as though there might well be a decline in service with increasing altitude. The phenomenon must now be mapped more carefully.
As far as operating procedures is concerned, it is probably best to make calls to a number you know well, to be familiar with the various status messages on each cell phone display screen, and to have someone at the other end who can log the time of the call, as well as to summarize the content. (The cockpit in most light aircraft is so noisy that one cannot always hear a voice at the other end, although I did hear my wife talk- ing somewhat clearly on two occasions.) Also, it is important to be very organized, having a special carrier case for cell phones, writing/recording materials, etc. The airspeed of the Katana was just a little fast for me to comfortably make the calls and stay organized at the same time. Two of the calls were made rather late in the current lap, even as we began to climb out to the next one. It would be better to have a separate person oper- ating the cell phones. We also need a meaningful call classifica- tion system to fill the gaps between complete failure and an au- dible conversation.
All calls were handled by the Bell Mobility Network, which has some 25 cell sites operating in the London area. I have now located all the cell sites in London, Ontario, thanks to a very helpful set of maps provided by a local cell phone aficionado: www.arcx.com/sites/ A. K. Dewdney
(with thanks to Corey Barrington, pilot with Empire Aviation)
'Project Achilles' Report • Part Two February 25, 2003
Equipment:
Aircraft: Diamond Katana four-seater (Empire Aviation) Cell phones: CI, C2, C3, C4 (See appendix for descrip- tions.)
Personnel: Corey Barrington (pilot); Darren Spicknell (op- erator - technician for Wireless Concepts, Inc); Kee Dewdney (director); Pat Dewdney (ground recorder)
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Weather, unlimited ceiling, light scattered cloud at 3,000 and 25,000 feet, visibility 15 miles, wind 5 knots from NW, air temperature -12 C.
For this experiment, we flew a circular route, instead of the elongated oval. The circle centered on the downtown core and took us over most of the city suburbs. All locations below are referred to the city centre and are always about three miles dis- tant from it.
Protocol
At times specified by the director, the operator made a call
T2: Results Cell Phone High Altitude Experiment #2
Tme (pm) |
Call |
C# |
loc. |
Operator Recorder |
5:05 |
started taxi to runway |
|||
5:12 |
takeoff |
|||
5:14 |
at 2000 feet (ab. ground altitude) |
|||
5:15 |
Call #1 |
CI |
N |
success not very clear |
5:17 |
Call #2 |
C2 |
W |
success not very clear |
5:19 |
Call #3 |
C3 |
sw |
failure |
5:21 |
Call #4 |
C4 |
s |
success not clear/ breaking up |
5:24 |
climbed to 4000 feet ab. ground |
|||
5:25 |
Call #5 |
CI |
NE |
failure |
5:26 |
Call #6 |
C2 |
N |
success clear |
5:27 |
Call #7 |
C3 |
NW |
failure |
5:29 |
Call #8 |
C4 |
W |
failure |
5:33 |
climbed to 6000 feet ab. ground |
|||
5:34 |
Call #9 |
CI |
SE |
failure |
5:36 |
Call #10 |
C2 |
E |
failure |
5:37 |
Call #11 |
C3 |
NE |
failure |
5:38 |
Call #12 |
C4 |
N |
failure |
5:39 |
Call #13 |
CI |
NW |
failure |
5:40 |
Call #14 |
C2 |
SW |
success clear |
5:42 |
Call #15 |
C3 |
s |
failure |
5:43 |
Call #16 |
C4 |
SE |
failure |
5:44 |
Call #17 |
CI |
E |
failure |
5:45 |
Call #18 |
C2 |
NE |
failure |
5:45 |
Call #19 |
C3 |
NE |
success breaking up |
5:46 |
Call #20 |
C4 |
N |
failure |
5:49 |
begin climb to 8000 feet above ground (cell phones 2 and 3 only) |
|||
5:50 |
Call #21 |
C2 |
W |
failure |
5:50 |
Call #22 |
C3 |
SW |
failure |
5:51 |
Call #23 |
C2 |
s |
success buzzy |
5:53 |
completed climb to 8000 feet above ground |
|||
5:58 |
Call #24 |
C3 |
SE |
failure |
5:58 |
Call #25 |
C2 |
E |
failure |
5:58 |
Call #26 |
C3 |
E |
failure |
5:59 |
Call #27 |
C2 |
NE |
failure |
6:00 |
Call #28 |
C3 |
N |
failure |
6:01 |
Call #29 |
CI |
N |
failure |
6:01 |
Call #30 |
C2 |
NW |
failure |
6:02 |
Call #31 |
C3 |
NW |
failure |
6:02 |
Call #32 |
C4 |
NW |
failure |
6:15 |
landed at airport |
250
to a specified number, stating the code number of the cell phone (1 to 4) and the altitude. The receiver recorded whatever was heard and the time the call was received. At the first three altitudes of 2000, 4000, and 6000 feet above ground each cell phone was used once. At 8000 feet above ground, only C2 and C3 were tried, CI and C4 now being hors de combat. For the results with timeline see table T2.
Conclusions
To the extent that the cell phones used in this experiment represent types in general use, it may be concluded that from this particular type of aircraft, cell phones become useless very quickly with increasing altitude. In particular, two of the cell phone types, the Mike and the Nokia, became useless above 2000 feet. Of the remaining two, the Audiovox worked intermittently up to 6000 feet but failed thereafter, while the BM analog cell phone worked once just over 7000 feet but failed consistently thereafter. We therefore conclude that ordi- nary cell phones, digital or analog, will fail to get through at or above 8000 feet above ground.
It should be noted that several of the calls rated here as "successes" were difficult for the Recorder to hear, witness description such as "breaking up" or "buzzy."
Summary Table Experiment #2
altitude (in feet) calls tried calls successful success
2000 |
4 |
3 |
75% |
4000 |
4 |
1 |
25% |
6000 |
12 |
2 |
17% |
8000 |
12* |
1 |
8% |
* includes three calls made while climbing; last successful call was made from just over 7000 feet.
The four cell phones operated via four different cellular networks (cell sites). Because calls were made from a variety of positions for each network, it cannot be said that failures were the fault of cell site placement. The London, Ontario, re- gion is richly supplied with cell sites belonging to five sepa- rate networks.
It may be noted in passing that this experiment was also conducted in a radio-transparent aircraft with carbon-fibre composite construction. Failure to make a call from such an aircraft with any particular brand of cell phone spells auto- matic failure for the same cell phone from a metal-clad air- craft flying at the same altitude. A metal skin attenuates all cell phone signals to a significant degree. It may safely be concluded that the operational ceiling for cell phones in alu- minum skin aircraft (most passenger liners, for example) would be significantly lower than the ones reported here.
It may therefore safely be concluded that cell phone calls from passenger aircraft are physically impossible above 8000 feet above ground and statistically unlikely below it.
Cell phone types, networks
- CI Motorola i95cl - Telus Mike Network - 800 Mhz IDEN
- C2 Motorola StarTac - Bell Mobility - 800 Mhz Analog
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-C3 Audiovox 8300 - Telus PCS Network - 1.9 Ghz CDMA / 800 MHz
- C4 Nokia 6310i - Rogers AT&T - 1.9 Ghz GHz GSM. (Tri-Band - Has an 1.8 GHz and 900 Mhz GSM these are European frequencies)
- IDEN - Integrated Digital Enhanced Network
- CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access
- GSM - Global Systems for Mobile Communications Power Levels: Power output of these handsets. The Nokia
6310i and Audiovox 8300 when in digital mode will output 0.2 Watts. When the Analog Motorola StarTac is operating it is at 0.6 Watts optimal. When and IF the Audiovox 8300 is in ana- log mode it will operate at 0.6 Watts (However, this is not nor- mally the case - you will see wattage levels around 0.52 - 0.45 approximately)
Frequency: Both the Telus Mike (CI) and Motorola StarTac (C2) operate in the 800 MHz range. This will allow the signal to travel at a great distance. However, the IDEN (Mike) net- work has fewer site locations and is a newer Digital network. Most digital technologies operate on a "all or none" basis. When it has signal it will work well. As the signal fades, one hears no static, but some digital distortion just before the call drops.
Networks: Mike Network: Newer, all-digital network with modern antenna design, and fewer cell sites; Bell Mobility Analog: Older, analog network with less focused antenna de- sign but many cell sites; Telus PCS: Newer, digital network with multiple frequencies, modern antenna design, and many cell sites; Rogers GSM: Our newest digital network with mod- ern antenna design and many cell sites. (All data (courtesy of Darren Spicknell.)
A. K. Dewdney, February 25th 2003
'Project Achilles' • Final Report and Summary of Findings
During the early months of the year 2003, the author con- ducted three experiments to determine whether and how well cell phones could be operated from aircraft. The first flight (Part One) was essentially a probe of the experimental situa- tion, to acquire some primary data and to work out a simple, readily implemented protocol. The results of Part Two (Dia- mond Katana 4-seater) have already appeared in these pages. The results of Part Three (Cessna 172-R) appear immediately below.
Since this completes the suite of ex- periments, it is appropriate to summarize the findings and to draw some conclusions. The conclusions are based partly on the ex- periments and partly on two other sources. (See Appendix B at the end of the report.) Expert opinion and eyewitness testimony are acceptable not only in court, but in cer- tain scientific inquiries where events are of short duration or experiments are too ex- pensive or impossible to carry out. Of course, eyewitness accounts do not carry the same weight as expert opinions or ac- tual experiments, but the eyewitness ac-
counts quoted below seem to be both consistent and compel- ling.
Disclaimer: The companies hired to assist in this experi- ment, namely Empire Aviation and Cellular Solutions, both of London, Ontario, Canada, acted as disinterested commercial parties, with no stake in the outcome or even knowledge of the purpose of the tests.
Experiments
The previous experiment, called Part Two, established a dis- tinct trend of decreasing cell phone functionality with altitude. It was conducted in a four-seater Diamond Katana over the city of London (pop. 300,000), Ontario in Canada, an area richly supplied with some 35 cell sites distributed over an area of about 25 square miles. The flight path was an upward spiral, punctuated every 2000 feet (above ground) with a level circuit around the outskirts of the city. On each circuit a fixed number of cell phone calls were attempted by an expert operator em- ploying a battery of well-charged phones broadly representative of those on the market both currently and in the year 2001.
(It should be remarked that not only is the cell phone tech- nological base in Canada identical to its US counterpart, but Canadian communication technology is second to none, Canada being a world-leader in research and development.)
The purpose of Part Three was to test the effects of what might be called "Faraday attenuation" on the strength and suc- cess of calls. The presence of a metallic shell around some elec- tronic devices can alter their behavior by its ability to attract and store electrons, especially electromagnetic waves. For this reason, the experimental craft was switched from the Katana, which is supposed to be relatively transparent to em radiation, to an aircraft with an aluminum skin, as below.
Equipment
Aircraft: Cessna 172-R (2002) four-seater (Empire Avia- tion)
Cell phones: CI, C2, C3, C4, C5 (See Appendix A for de- scriptions.)
Personnel: Corey Barrington (pilot - Empire Aviation); Darren Spicknell (operator - technician for Wireless Concepts, Inc); Kee Dewdney (director); Pat Dewdney (ground recorder).
Weather: unlimited ceiling, light scattered cloud at 5,000,
One of the planes used to make the cell phone experiments
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T3: Results Cell Phone High Altitude Experiment #3
time (pm) |
Call |
C# |
Loc. |
Operator Recorder |
7:05 - started |
||||
taxi to runway |
||||
7:12 -takeoff |
||||
7:15— at 2000 |
||||
feet (above- ground alti- |
||||
tude) |
||||
7:17 |
Call#l |
CI |
N |
success clear, slight breakup |
7:18 |
Call #2 |
C2 |
W |
success clear |
7:20 |
Call #3 |
C3 |
sw |
success clear |
7:22 |
Call #4 |
C4 |
s |
success (2 tries) clear |
7:23 |
Call #5 |
C5 |
SE |
success clear |
7:27 - climbed |
||||
to 4000 feet |
||||
above ground |
||||
7:28 |
Call #6 |
CI |
NE |
success clear |
7:30 |
Call #7 |
C2 |
N |
success clear |
7:31 |
Call #8 |
C3 |
NW |
"success" (frag) no com- plete word |
7:32 |
Call #9 |
C4 |
W |
failure no ring |
7:34 |
Call #10 |
C5 |
SW |
success clear |
7:35 - climbed |
||||
to 6000 feet |
||||
above ground |
||||
7:39 |
Call #11 |
CI |
SE |
success clear |
7:41 |
Call #12 |
C2 |
E |
success clear |
7:42 |
Call #13 |
C3 |
E |
success clear, slight breakup |
7:44 |
Call #14 |
C4 |
NE |
failure no ring |
7:44 |
Call #15 |
C5 |
NE |
failure no ring |
solid/broken 24,000 feet, visibility 12 miles, wind 11 knots from SSW, air temperature +19 C.
For this experiment, we flew the same circular route as we did in Part Two, The circle centered on the downtown core and took us over most of the city suburbs. All locations below are referred to the city centre and are always about two miles dis- tant from it.
Protocol
At times specified by the director, the operator made a call to a specified number, stating the code number of the cell phone (1 to 5) and the altitude. The ground recorder noted whatever was heard and the time the call was received. At the first two altitudes of 2000, 4000 above ground altitude (above ground) each cell phone was used once. At 6000 and 8000 feet above ground, each cell phone was used twice only C2, C3, and C5 were tried, C 1 and C4 being hors de combat. For the results,
Summary Table Experiment #2
altitude (feet) |
calls tried |
calls successful |
success |
2000 |
5 |
5 |
100% |
4000 |
5 |
3 |
60% |
6000 |
15 |
6 |
40% |
8000 |
15 |
2 |
13% |
252
7:45 |
Call #16 |
CI |
N |
failure no ring |
7:46 |
Call #17 |
C2 |
N |
success clear |
7:47 |
Call #18 |
C3 |
NW |
failure no ring |
7:48 |
Call #19 |
C4 |
NW |
failure no ring |
7:49 |
Call# 20 |
C5 |
W |
success clear |
7:50 |
Call #21 |
CI |
w |
failure no ring |
7:51 |
Call #22 |
C2 |
sw |
failure no ring |
7:52 |
Call #23 |
C3 |
sw |
failure no ring |
7:53 |
Call #24 |
C4 |
s |
failure no ring |
7:54 |
Call #25 |
C5 |
s |
success clear |
7:55 - begin |
||||
climb to 8000 |
||||
feet above |
||||
ground (cell |
||||
phones C2, C3 |
||||
and C5) |
||||
7:55 |
Call #26 |
C2 |
SE |
failure no ring |
7:57 |
Call #27 |
C3 |
E |
failure no ring |
7:59 |
Call #28 |
C5 |
E |
success clear, slight breakup |
8:00 - com- |
||||
pleted climb to 8000 feet |
||||
above ground |
||||
8:01 |
Call #29 |
C2 |
NE |
failure no ring |
8:02 |
Call #30 |
C3 |
NE |
failure no ring |
8:03 |
Call #3 1 |
C5 |
N |
failure no ring |
8:04 |
Call #32 |
C2 |
NW |
success clear |
8:05 |
Call #33 |
C3 |
NW |
failure no ring |
8:07 |
Call #34 |
C5 |
W |
failure no ring |
8:20 - landed at |
||||
airport |
see table T3, for the summary see the table on the bottom left.
Note: calls "tried" includes retired cell phones CI and C4 above the altitude of 4000 feet where, in the opinion of the cell phone expert, they would have failed to get through, in any case. Failure to include them in the count would make the re- sults at different altitudes non-comparable.
The results of this experiment may be compared to the re- sults from Part Two where, instead of the Cessna, we used the Diamond Katana:
altitude (feet) |
calls tried |
calls successful |
success |
2000 |
4 |
3 |
75% |
4000 |
4 |
1 |
25% |
6000 |
12 |
2 |
17% |
8000 |
20 |
1 |
5% |
To make the results comparable, however, cell phone C5 was omitted from the calculations, since it was not used in the first experiment.
altitude (feet) |
calls tried |
calls successful |
success |
2000 |
4 |
3 |
75% |
4000 |
4 |
1 |
25% |
6000 |
12 |
2 |
17% |
8000 |
12 |
1 |
8% |
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
Analysis
Since the (1.5 mm) skin of the Cessna appears to have made little difference to the outcome of the experiment, the data of Parts Two and Three may be combined, as follows, to produce more reliable figures for the battery of test phones that were used in the experiment:
altitude (feet) |
calls tried |
calls successful |
percent |
2000 |
9 |
8 |
89% |
4000 |
9 |
4 |
44% |
6000 |
27 |
8 |
30% |
8000 |
35 |
3 |
9% |
The data from the first three altitudes appear to fit an in- verse-linear model of attenuation. In other words, the probabil- ity of a call getting through varies inversely as the altitude, ac- cording to the formula:
Probability of success = k/altitude, where k is a constant It will be noted that the values of k implied by these data, at least up to 6000 feet above ground are remarkably consistent. However, at 8000 feet the k-value falls precipitously, implying that a different regime may be in play.
altitude (feet) |
k-value |
2000 |
1780 |
4000 |
1760 |
6000 |
1800 |
8000 |
720 |
The expected model of attenuation with distance is of course inverse squared, a natural consequence of the three di- mensions that any uniform radiation must travel through. In- verse squared attenuation follows a slightly different pattern or formula:
Probability of success = k/altitude2
To estimate k, it seems reasonable to use the data from 4000 feet and 8000 feet as benchmarks for the calculation of the con- stant k (not the same constant as was used in the foregoing analysis, of course.)
At 4000 feet above ground the implied k-value if 7,040,000, while at 8000 feet, the implied k-value is 5,760,000. although here again the k-value appears to drop (indicating that the ac- tual attenuation may be worse than inverse squared), we use an average of the two estimates, following our consistent practice of always giving the benefit of the doubt to the cell phones, so to speak.
Taking an average value of k = 6,400,000, we obtain the formula,
Probability of success = 6,400,000/altitude2
Using this formula, we can get a best-case estimate for the probability of cell phone success from a slow-moving light air- craft, as summarized in the following table.
altitude (feet) |
probability of cell phone call getting through |
4,000 |
0.400 |
8,000 |
0.100 |
12,000 |
0.040 |
16,000 |
0.025 |
20,000 |
0.016 |
24,000 |
0.011 |
28,000 |
0.008 |
32,000 |
0.006 |
Private pilots flying light aircraft are nowadays familiar with the fact that they may use their cell phones to make calls to the ground, at least if they are not higher than one or two thousand feet. Above that altitude, calls get rather iffy, some- times working, sometimes not. The higher a pilot ascends, the less likely the call is to get through. At 8000 feet the pilot will not get through at all unless he or she happens to be using a cell phone with the same capabilities as C5 (See appendix A.) But even that cell phone begins to fail at 6000 feet.
Calls from 20,000 feet have barely a one-in-a-hundred chance of succeeding.
The results just arrived at apply only to light aircraft and are definitely optimal in the sense that cell phone calls from large, heavy-skinned, fast-moving jetliners are apt to be considerably worse.
Conclusions
It cannot be said that the Faraday attenuation experiment (Part Three) was complete, in the sense that the operator nor- mally held the phone to his ear, seated in a normal position. This meant that the signals from the test phones were only par- tially attenuated because the operator was surrounded by win- dows that are themselves radio-transparent.
Although we cannot say yet to what degree the heavier alu- minum skin on a Boeing 700-series aircraft would affect cell phone calls made from within the aircraft, they would not be without some effect as windows take up a much smaller solid angle at the cell phone antenna. Signals have a much smaller window area to escape through, in general.
As was shown above, the chance of a typical cell phone call from cruising altitude making it to ground and engaging a cell site there is less than one in a hundred. To calculate the prob- ability that two such calls will succeed involves elementary probability theory. The resultant probability is the product of the two probabilities, taken separately. In other words, the probability that two callers will succeed is less than one in ten thousand. In the case of a hundred such calls, even if a large majority fail, the chance of, say 13 calls getting through can only be described as infinitesimal. In operational terms, this means "impossible."
At lower altitudes the probability of connection changes from impossible to varying degrees of "unlikely." But here, a different phenomenon asserts itself, a phenomenon that cannot be tested in a propeller-driven light aircraft. At 500 miles per hour, a low-flying aircraft passes over each cell in a very short time. For example if a cell (area serviced by a given cell site) were a mile in diameter, the aircraft would be in it for one to eight seconds. Before a cell phone call can go through, the de- vice must complete an electronic "handshake" with the cell site servicing the call. This handshake can hardly be completed in eight seconds. When the aircraft comes into the next cell, the call must be "handed off to the new cell site. This process also absorbs seconds of time. Together, the two requirements for a successful and continuous call would appear to absorb too much time for a speaking connection to be established. Sooner or later, the call is "dropped."
This assessment is borne out by both ear-witness testimony and by expert opinion, as found in Appendix B, below. Taking
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253
the consistency of theoretical prediction and expert opinion at face value, it seems fair to conclude that cell phone calls (at any altitude) from fast-flying aircraft are no more likely to get through than cell phone calls from high-flying slow aircraft.
A. K. Dewdney,
February 19th 2003
A. K. Dewdney, 19th April 2003
Disclaimer
The author has not placed his university affiliations below his name, as the research described here was not conducted with any university facilities or supported by university- administered grants. He currently holds the titles of Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Adjunct Professor of Biol- ogy at the University of Western Ontario, as well as Professor of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.
Appendix A: Cell phone Types
- Cl - Motorola i95cl - Telus Mike Network - 800 Mhz IDEN
- C2 - Motorola StarTac - Bell Mobility - 800 Mhz Analog
- C3 - Audiovox 8300 - Telus PCS Network - 1.9 Ghz CDMA / 800 MHz
- C4 - Nokia 6310i - Rogers AT&T - 1.9 Ghz GHz GSM. (Tri-Band - Has an 1.8 GHz and 900 Mhz GSM these are European frequencies)
- C5 - Motorola Timeport 8767 - Bell Mobility - 800 MHz Analog (CDMA Tri-Mode 1 .9 GHz CDMA / 800 Mhz CDMA)
Appendix B: Letters
Professional opinions
"Dear Sir
I have yet to read the entire [Ghost Riders] article but I do have a background in telecommunications. Using a cell phone on an aircraft is next to impossible. The reasons are very detailed, but basically the aircraft would run major in- terference, as well as the towers that carry the signal would have a difficult time sending and receiving due to the speed of the aircraft. As well, calling an operator? Well that is ba- sically impossible.
Having worked for both a major Canadian and Ameri- can provider I had to instruct my staff that operator assis- tance is not an option. Have you ever tried to use a cell phone in some public buildings? Impossible. There are too many spots that service is voided. Just a tidbit of informa- tion to share.
Megan Conley <megan_conley@hotmail.com>"
"Hi,
I am an RF design engineer, having built out Sprint, Verizon and another network in New Orleans. You are ab- solutely correct. We have trouble making these things work for cars going 55 mph on the ground. If you need another engineer 's testimony for any reason, let me know I will cor- roborate. My engineering site:
http://www.geocities.com/rf_man_cdma/ Brad Mayeux <cdmaman@engineer.com> "
Anecdotal evidence "Sir,
Yours is the first article I've read which focuses on those dubious 'cell phone calls '. Last month my Wife and I flew to
Melbourne, about 1000 miles south of here.
Cell phones are Verboten in Airliners here, but on the return journey I had a new NOKIA phone, purchased in Melbourne, and so small I almost forgot it was in my pocket. I furtively turned it on. No reception anywhere, not even over Towns or approaching Brisbane. Maybe it's dif- ferent in the US, but I doubt it.
There has to be an investigation into this crime. Justice for the thousands of dead and their families demands it.
Best
Bernie Busch <bbusch@iprimus.com.au> "
"Hi Prof
I have repeatedly tried to get my cell phone to work in an airplane above 2-3000 feet and it doesn 't work. My ex- periments were done discretely on [more than] 20 Southwest Airlines flights between Ontario, California and Phoenix, Arizona. My experiments match yours. Using sprint phones 3500 and 6000 models, no calls above 2500 ft [succeeded], a 'no service ' indicator at 5000 ft (guestimate).
There seem to be two reasons. 1. the cell sites don't have enough power to reach much more than a mile, 2. The cell phone system is not able to handoff calls when the plane is going at more than 400 mph.
This is simply experimental data. If any of your contacts can verify it by finding the height of the Pennsylvania plane and it 's speed one can prove that the whole phone call story is forged.
Rafe <rafeh@rdlabs.com> (airline pilot) "
"Greetings,
I write in praise of your report, as I have felt from day one that the cell phone 'evidence ' was perhaps the flimsiest part of the story, and am amazed that nobody has touched it until now.
I'd also like to bring up the point of airspeed, which is what made the cell calls a red-flag for me in the first place. I'm not sure what your top speed achieved in the small plane was, but, in a large airliner travelling at (one would think) no less than 450mph, most cell phones wouldn 't be able to transit cells fast enough to maintain a connection (at least, from what I understand of the technology) .. and we're talking 2001 cell technology besides, which in that period, was known to drop calls made from cars travelling above 70mph on the freeway (again, due to cell coverage transits)
Anyway, thanks for shining the light, keep up the good work
Ben Adam <email on request> "
"Dear Professor,
Responding to your article, I'm glad somebody with au- thority has taken the trouble to scientifically prove the non- sense of 9/11.
I was travelling between two major European cities, every weekend, when the events in the US occurred. I was specifically puzzled by the reports that numerous passen-
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gers on board the hijacked planes had long conversations with ground phone lines, using their mobile phones (and not on board satellite phones). Since I travelled every weekend, I ignored the on board safety regulations to switch off the mobile phone and out of pure curiosity left it on to see if I could make a call happen.
First of all, at take off the connection disappears quite quickly (ascending speed, lateral reception of ground sta- tions etc.), I would estimate from 500 meters [1500 feet approx.] and above, the connection breaks.
Secondly, when making the approach for landing, the descent is more gradual and the plane is travelling longer in the reach of cell phone stations, but also only below 500 meters. What I noticed was that, since the plane is travelling with high speed, the connection jumps from one cell phone station to another, never actually giving you a chance to make a phone call. (I have never experienced this behaviour
over land, e.g. by car). Then, if a connection is established, it takes at least 10-30 seconds before the provider author- ises a phone call in the first place. Within this time, the next cell station is reached (travel speed still > 300 km/h) and the phone, always searching for the best connection, dis- connects the current connection and tries to connect to a new station.
I have done this experiment for over 18 months, ruling out weather conditions, location or coincidence. In all this time the behaviour was the same: making a phone call in a plane is unrealistic and virtually impossible.
Based on this, I can support you in your findings that the official (perhaps fabricated) stories can be categorised as nonsense.
With kind regards.
Peter Kes <kpkes@yahoo.com> "
An Alternative Scenario
Effective stage magic produces the illusion of an event that did not actually happen, at least not in the manner implied by the illusion.
The implied explanation is 'magic,' while the actual expla- nation, invariably more complicated, is quite different. Most members of the audience know that the implied explanation is wrong. They try to imagine how the effect was produced. Very few believe the 'official' explanation.
In other, blacker forms of magic, the manipulative element remains but the polarity of the audience is reversed. Most members of the audience 'know' that the implied explanation is correct and do not try to imagine how the effect was produced. Very few disbelieve it. If the events of September 11, 2001, were all part of an elaborate piece of stage magic, in effect, how could it have been arranged? This article explores one pos- sibility. The name of the trick is 'Ghost Riders in the Sky.' It begins with a peek behind the curtain on that fateful day.
Flight 11
The morning of September 1 1 dawned bright and clear over Boston's Logan Airport as crews arrived for the first flights of the day. The departure lounge for American Airlines Flight 1 1 was already filling with passengers when John Ogonowski, the pilot, and Thomas McGuinness, the first officer, arrived to board their Boeing 767 and begin the pre-flight check.
As they walked through the lounge, Ogonowski casually scanned the waiting passengers, a longtime habit. Nothing out of the ordinary.
In the cockpit, he and McGuinness worked through the long checklist and, when they came to engine start-up, the two giant General Electric turbofan engines roared into life. The weather reports were good all the way to Los Angeles. It would be a routine flight.
At 7:45 the flight crew closed the cabin doors and the 767 began to taxi out to the runway. Clearance came minutes later and, at 7:59, the engines opened to full throttle and the 767 be- came airborne. It climbed into clear blue skies, leveled at
25,000 feet, and headed west toward Los Angeles. Ogonowski called up the coordinates for Los Angeles on the flight control computer, then engaged the INS/autopilot system. A flight at- tendant brought coffee to the cockpit and stayed to chat briefly, before resuming her duties.
The flight continued normally until 8:27, nearly half an hour into the trip. At that point Ogonowski's chest felt tight and he experienced difficulty breathing. Was it a heart attack? He glanced nervously at McGuinness, thinking that if the symp- toms got worse, he should warn the co-pilot that he was having a medical problem. But McGuinness' face was white and he appeared to be gasping for air. Then he vomited. "We have a situation," declared Ogonowski, trying desperately to think. There were shouts and screams coming from the passenger compartment behind the closed cockpit doors. His mind seemed to be clouding over and breathing was now impossible. He managed to say, "Call the flight attendants," before passing out. McGuinness' head was already lolling to one side.
Back in the passenger area, the last flight attendant to lose consciousness, sank slowly to her knees before passing out in the aisle. The aircraft smelled of vomit and feces. Except for one or two passengers lying in the aisles, most remained in their seats. They appeared to have all fallen asleep, but they were dead. Everybody in the aircraft was dead.
Back in the cockpit, pilot and copilot sat dead in their seats, eyes staring blankly at the deep blue sky above the cockpit win- dows. The aircraft continued to fly normally, when suddenly the numbers on the inertial navigation system display changed. Instead of the coordinates for Los Angeles airspace, new num- bers jumped into place. The aircraft banked steeply to the left and began a slow descent, adding another 100 mph to its air- speed.
In the distance, the New York skyline was growing steadily larger through the cockpit windows, though no one saw it. The aircraft, continuing to descend, headed for lower Manhattan.
By the time the 767 crossed the East River, it would have been all too clear where the aircraft was going. The World
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Trade Center Towers loomed steadily larger, dead ahead, through the cockpit windows. At 8:45, the Boeing 767 slammed into the North Tower. A huge ball of flame, burning jet fuel, blossomed from the southeast side of the North Tower. The passengers and crew of Flight 11, having been gassed, were now cremated, along with hundreds of office workers in the North Tower.
At 9:03, 18 minutes later, even as thousands of New York- ers gaped upward in astonishment and dismay at the burning North Tower, another Boeing 767, approaching from the southwest, crashed into the South Tower. United Airlines Flight 175 had also departed from Boston Logan that morning at 8:15.
At 9:45 a third aircraft crashed into one corner of the Penta- gon building. At 10:00 am, a fourth crashed in a field near Pittsburgh, apparently unable to complete its mission.
Within minutes of the first crash, major networks carried the developing story. Four apparent suicide attacks involving large passenger aircraft had just struck two of America's most impor- tant landmarks. Asked for their impressions, people on the street described it as 'unreal.' The scale was unprecedented. The drama swept away the debris of ordinary life, shocking Americans into numbness, then anger.
In the days that followed, the story of four cells of Arab ter- rorists emerged with unprecedented speed. The names of the hi- jackers were revealed, along with their affiliation or 'links' to al Qaida and the dreaded Osama bin Laden. Soon, Bush would declare his "war on terrorism." Soon American forces would be heading for Afghanistan. Soon Israel would be re-invading the West Bank and Gaza.
The September attacks acquired, almost from the start, an apocalyptic dimension, as if the hijackers stood proxy for the Four Horsemen themselves. This analysis explores the possibil- ity that the aircraft were hijacked not by persons physically pre- sent in the cockpit, but by a simple combination of two hi-tech methods. In such a case, there would be no Horsemen, only 'ghost riders,' recalling the American ballad Ghost Riders in the Sky.
Analyzing the Terror Attacks
The discrepancy between the account I have just given of the hijackings and the one reported in the media is obvious and, to many, highly improbable. How could anyone question such an open-and-shut case? There had been the decisive and amaz- ingly rapid unfolding of the FBI investigation, wherein the do- mestic agency had pretty well solved a case involving 19 terror- ists in just two days. (It took them several years to find one ter- rorist— the Unabomber.) There had also been the steady stream of timed press releases and Pentagon briefings, the disclosure of a war plan by the White House within days of the attacks. What could they be but the work of a well-prepared govern- ment? Besides, people who had only just begun adjusting to the 'new reality' would hardly be in a mood to exchange it for something far worse. Nevertheless, the 'unreality' of the attacks themselves would seem to join seamlessly with the unreality of the subsequent drama.
In a following section I will examine the technical feasibil- ity of hijacking large commercial aircraft electronically, as de-
scribed in the opening scenario. I do not claim that this is what actually what happened on September 1 1 . But even less would I claim that the attacks were planned and carried out by 'Arab terrorists.'
I claim only that the method described below amounts to one of several methods, albeit among the most efficient, for converting passenger aircraft into flying fuel bombs. I must therefore also claim that the rush to judgment following Sep- tember 1 1 was, at best, foolhardy on the part of the Bush ad- ministration and, at worst, disastrous for America. In that event, the evidence compiled here points to elements within the power structure of the US government and it can only be concluded that the United States itself has been hijacked.
Before explaining how a hi-tech hijacking might be feasi- ble, it would be appropriate to disclose some findings related to the attacks for clues they may contain that something quite dif- ferent from hijackings by 'Arab terrorists' was in progress that day.
The Historical Context
First and most important, no attack blamed on any recog- nized 'terrorist' group, whether Palestinian, Basque separatist, Irish nationalist, Tamil Tiger, Red Army brigade, or what have you, was ever carried out without the group responsible claim- ing responsibility. The whole point of the attack is to publicize a cause. The only exception to this rule in the history of terror- ism is the mysterious Al Qaida, led by the equally mysterious Osama bin Laden. Robert Fisk, the well-known British reporter, gave voice to the same opinion:
"They left no message behind. They left just silence. "
In Fisk's opinion, this was quite out of character for any ter- rorist organization. (Maclntyre, 2001)
If Al Qaida was responsible for the attacks, what possible reason would bin Laden have for not claiming responsibility? The White House claim that Al Qaida' s purpose was to inflict 'nameless terror' on America is deeply contradictory. The only other terrorist acts for which none of the 'regular' organizations took responsibility, namely, the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, as well as the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, were also blamed on Al Qaida. What reason would bin Laden have for imagining that the terror inflicted by Al Qaida on September 1 1 would be blamed on anyone but Al Qaida, let alone be 'nameless?' It simply fails to make sense. Worse yet, bin Laden has repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks. On September 1 1 bin Laden said:
"This terrorist act is the action of some American
group. I have nothing to do with it. "
Later, on September 28:
"I have already said that I am not involved in the 11
September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try
my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these
attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women,
children, and other humans as an appreciable [sic] act. "
(Ummat, 2001)
Nevertheless, the White House claimed to have 'links' be- tween Al Qaida and the September 1 1 attacks, secret informa- tion that, for reasons of 'national security,' could not be dis- closed to the public.
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Intelligence Leaks
Another discrepancy in the September 1 1 attacks is apparent to anyone who has followed the history of 'terrorism.' The sheer size of the operation as outlined by the White House, the high degree of coordination involved, and the need for absolute secrecy, is not one, but two, orders of magnitude greater in scale than anything previously attempted by any terrorist group. Indeed, even the previous attacks blamed on Al Qaida were relatively simple operations involving the clandestine transport of explosive materials (by boat or car) to the target site. In the large-scale operation of September 11, the requirement of se- crecy was especially important.
The scale of the operation, however it may have been achieved, was more suited to a large, well-organized intelli- gence agency, with as many as 50 field agents involved, each privy to one or more aspects of the plan. With such a large op- eration, leaks are inevitable. The two cited below both point to a very different source for the attacks.
According to Ha 'aretz, Israel's largest daily, two employees of Odigo, an Israel-based messaging service in one of the WTC towers, received email warnings of the attack two hours before impact on September 11. (Dror, 2001) The employees immedi- ately informed the company, which cooperated with Israeli se- curity services, as well as American law enforcement agencies, giving them the source of the message. No follow-up on this story has ever been made available, which leads one to believe that the message did not come from a 'terrorist' source: If such a source had been suspected, much less proved, the administra- tion would not have hesitated to use the item in its 'war on ter- rorism. '
An interesting report of another leak alleged:
"A US military intelligence report revealed details of an internal intelligence memo linking Mossad to the WTC and Pentagon attacks. The memo was in circulation three weeks before the attacks. " (Stern, 2001)
It pointed to a threat that Mossad was planning a covert op- eration on US soil to turn public opinion against the Arabs. David Stern, an expert on Israeli intelligence operations, stated: "This attack required a high level of military precision and the resources of an advanced intelligence agency. In addition, the attackers would have needed to be extremely familiar with both Air Force One flight operations, civil air- line flight paths, and aerial assault tactics on sensitive US cities like Washington. "
Stern also pointed out that the attacks "serve no Arab group or nation's interest, but their timing came in the midst of inter- national condemnation of Israel [...]"
The Virtual Celebration
A highly suspicious occurrence was the airing of a video- tape supposedly shot in Palestine on the day of the attacks. The video shows Palestinians celebrating something. The media claimed that the Palestinians were celebrating the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The only problem with the tapes is the time of day. Shadows thrown by the stands and buildings in the vicinity of the celebrants clearly show the local time to be approximately noon. At the time of the attacks, how- ever, it was already 5:00 pm (daylight time) in Palestine. At
that time of day (and year), the angle of the shadows would be at most 30 degrees from the horizontal and readily visible on the video as deep shadows.
Since the tape is unquestionably a fake, shot at some other time and on some other occasion of celebration, it must be asked how it got into the hands of the American media (via an 'independent producer') so quickly, unless it had been prepared in advance of the attacks. There is no other explanation for this anomaly.
Planted Evidence
Another difficulty arises in the matter of evidence discov- ered by FBI investigators in the parking lots of airports used by the hijackers. In more than one rental vehicle, field officers re- covered copies of the Qur'an and aircraft flight manuals. In a context where the White House was stressing the 'sophistica- tion' of the attackers, as well as the high state of organization and coordination necessary to carry them out, it would seem reasonable to assume that all operatives would have been ex- tensively briefed on the importance of leaving no trace of them- selves or their mission (in pursuit of 'nameless terror'). Such a briefing would certainly include all personal possessions, reli- gious documents, flight manuals, and so on. The rental vehicles would be left as clean as they were when they were rented. No Muslim, (especially, one supposes, a 'fanatic') would ever leave a Qur'an in a rented vehicle, especially if he knew he would not be returning to it.
Come to think of it, why would any terrorist organization with such a high level of competence rent cars in the first place? After all, it would be simpler (and no less reliable) to take a cab to the airport.
Again, there are very serious discrepancies between the facts as reported and on-the-ground realities.
The Lebanese Playboy
Ziad Jarrah, the alleged pilot of United Airlines Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania), presents those who seek to understand the September 11 attacks with serious difficulties. As revealed in a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) in- vestigative report, first aired in November 2001, Jarrah was the playboy son of a wealthy family in Lebanon. (Maclntyre, 2001) The family was only nominally Muslim and Jarrah, if anything, more so. He loved to go dancing with other young people of his set in nightclubs and even had a steady girl friend, hardly prac- tices of a believing Muslim, let alone a fanatical one. Linden Maclntyre, host and reporter, traveled to Lebanon to interview the Jarrah family, then to Hamburg, where he discussed Ziad's behavior during the months leading up to September 11 with Jarrah' s landlady. The Jarrahs were completely mystified by their son's alleged role in the hijackings. The landlady, who seemed rather fond of him, was also mystified.
Jarrah loved the good life but had one over-riding passion, to study aeronautical engineering and (probably) to learn how to fly. He went to Hamburg to study and it was there, according to his landlady, that he began making mysterious evening trips to Harburg, sometimes not returning until dawn. Harburg was the address of Mohammed Atta, one of the most notorious of the alleged hijackers, and the person who, Maclntyre opines,
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probably recruited Jarrah for a special mission. If this is true, although we do not know what Atta may have told Jarrah, June of 2000 finds him in Florida, taking flying lessons (light aircraft only) and discussing with his room-mate (also interviewed for the program) what it would be like to fly a large commercial aircraft.
Anyone with a reasonably active imagination can come up with several different stories that may have been fed to Jarrah (apart from the standard Al Qaida recruitment scenario) causing him to spend a few nights in Harburg or to take flying lessons in Florida. Such behaviour is easily induced by any reasonably competent field officer: A lovely and very cooperative lady in Harburg, as well as the promise of a position as private pilot to a wealthy Middle Eastern businessman currently living in Flor- ida.
On September 9, just two days before the attacks, Jarrah telephoned his uncle in Lebanon. He sounded normal and rea- sonably happy, according to the uncle. He stated that he would be flying back to Lebanon in two weeks for a party which his family had planned. A new Mercedes awaited Jarrah, an antici- patory wedding gift which his father had purchased for him. Maclntyre professed no little puzzlement over the discrepan- cies:
"It becomes more perplexing as each layer of the mys- tery peels away. "
I will return to the alleged hijackers in a later section.
The 1993 Trade Center Bombing
The most important target of the September 1 1 attacks was undoubtedly the twin towers at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. These had been the target of a prior attempt at bombing in February, 1993. Among those charged with the bombing was Mohammed Salameh, a student who lived in Jer- sey City at the time.
On February 26, 1993, at 12:18 pm, a powerful explosion, originating in parking level 'B' beneath the WTC twin towers shook the buildings, killing seven people and trapping thou- sands of workers inside for hours, forcing them to breathe heavy smoke. Within a week, the FBI had arrested Mohammed A. Salameh, along with a friend, Nidal Ayyad, as prime sus- pects in the blast. Salameh had been traced through a fragment of metal found in the WTC parking garage. It bore the serial number of a Ford Econoline van belonging to a Ryder rental agency in Jersey City.
Salameh, it turned out, had certainly rented the van in ques- tion. Unlike most terrorists who rent vans to blow up large buildings, he reported the van stolen to Jersey City police on February 25 (the day before the blast). Unfortunately, he was unable to supply the license number, having left the rental documents in the stolen vehicle. He also reported the theft to the rental agency, attempting in the process to retrieve his $400 deposit on the vehicle. On the next day, even as everyone learned of the WTC bombing, Salameh again telephoned Ry- der, obtaining the plate number and filing a second report to the police, this time with the correct number. On the face of things, the youth was behaving just like someone who had no idea that his missing van had been used in the World Trade Center bombing.
This case gets even stranger. Salameh and Ayyad attended a small mosque on the second floor of a building in downtown Jersey City. The Imam was Shaikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. The shaikh was also arrested and brought to trial in a separate, closed proceeding. A police search of the mosque revealed no hidden bomb-making or related material. A search of Salameh' s apartment had the same negative result.
Police did, however, discover bomb-related wiring, instruc- tion sheets and traces of explosives in the apartment of a 'friend' of Salameh's. On the day before the bombing, an ac- quaintance of Salameh's in Jersey City, one Josie Hadas, had hired him to rent a van to move a certain cargo. Hadas, an Is- raeli citizen, was taken into custody by police, but was soon sent back to Israel and (apparently) cannot be found to this day. (HIE, 2001)
The main source of damaging testimony at the trial was de- livered by FBI informant Emad Salem, a former Egyptian army officer, who had become close to Shaikh Abdel Rahman and his circle of friends, infiltrating the group on behalf of the FBI. He testified that he had been involved in assisting with the bomb. The jury found the pair guilty of the blast, with Abdel- Rahman being tried in separate proceedings. The verdict was based on circumstantial evidence of a conspiracy; none of the suspects ever being placed by witnesses, or forensic evidence, at the scene of the crime. (Pringle, 1994)
After the trial, Salem disclosed a very different story:
"We was start [sic] already building the bomb which is went off in the World Trade Center. It was built by supervis- ing supervision from the bureau and [...] we was all in- formed about it and we know that the bomb was start to be built. " (Morales & DeRienzo, 1995)
Those who are unfamiliar with the activities of large intelli- gence operations should be aware that frame-ups and other 'dirty tricks' are part of regular operations. (Ostrovsky & Hoy, 1990) They are relatively easy to carry out, for the most part. For example, in the present case, Salameh could have been di- rected by Hadas to deliver the goods (innocuous items) to an address somewhere in Jersey City, where he would have to en- ter a building to report the delivery. While he was inside, the van would be stolen, then driven to another location to be pre- pared for its ultimate mission.
The Missing Passengers
In most of the web sources (CNN, 2001) (WRH, 2001) (IIIEb, 2001) for passenger lists, the names of the hijackers did not appear. There are, of course, a number of reasons why we might not see the names of the hijackers. One is that the airlines all decided, in releasing the lists to the media, to delete the names of the hijackers from the lists so as not to dishonor the dead, reproducing the lists as consisting of 'victims' only. No statement to this effect appeared in conjunction with any of the lists. Another reason is that the hijackers may have used phony names. Yet the passengers are usually identified not only by name on the lists, but their place of residence and occupations are also included. None of the entries give 'terrorist' as occupa- tion. It may be a bit of a stretch, but it is just possible that the hijackers' names do not appear on the passenger lists because they were not aboard the aircraft in the first place.
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The Missing Black Boxes
Each of the Boeing aircraft involved in the September 1 1 at- tacks was equipped with the standard 'black boxes,' a flight data recorder (FDR) and a cockpit voice recorder (CVR). There is no known instance, prior to September 11, 2001, of a terres- trial airplane crash from which the essential flight and voice data were not ultimately recovered.
Only one of the eight black boxes was ever recovered, namely the CVR of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania. According to ABC News:
"The voice recorder was said to be heavily damaged and the manufacturer was being asked to help with further analysis. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was re- ported to have hit the ground in excess of 500 miles an hour. "
Black boxes are built to withstand g-forces of up to 3400 Gs, generated by a deceleration of 108,800 f/sec/sec. An air- craft traveling at 500 mph that crashes into the ground or a building will have all motion arrested within one-tenth of a second, at the very least, yielding an average deceleration of at most 7,330 ft/sec/sec, about 7 percent of the rated maximum. Heat resistance for the units is 1100 degrees Celsius over a thirty minute period. Temperature would not have been a factor in the Pennsylvania crash, but even the fireball resulting from the WTC impacts had a temperature no greater than 1000 de- grees Celsius. (NTSB, 2002) The heat lasted no longer than the jet fuel and temperatures may not have reached half that value in the insulated confines of the black box housings. In any event, the buildings each collapsed in less than half an hour from impact.
There can be little doubt that had the black boxes been re- covered, they would have all the information necessary to con- firm that hijackers did, indeed, commandeer the four aircraft on September 1 1 . There have been no further reports in the media about the contents of the Flight 93 CVR. The FBI, which claimed that the tape had sounds of screams and shouts on it, has refused to release it. (Quinn, 2001) It might be added that the presence of such sounds on the CVR is perfectly consistent with what would be heard in and from the cockpit of Flight 93 in the few minutes following implementation of the hijacking method described below.
The Missing Interceptors
It has been standard policy for many years to intercept any aircraft within minutes of it being reported off course. The re- quest is made by an air traffic control (ATC) operator as soon as he or she notices that an aircraft has deviated from its flight path. Failure to contact the pilot (which would have been the case under both the alternate scenario and under the White House interpretation) results in a request by ATC to the mili- tary (NORAD) to intercept the aircraft (FAA, 1998) (FAA, 2001). Interception is automatic, does not require approval by any authority higher than the FAA liaison official at NORAD, and takes anywhere from five to 15 minutes, depending on the initial separation of target aircraft and the nearest operational base. Upon arrival, the interceptor waggles its wings to elicit a response from the pilot of the off-course aircraft. The pilot is also instructed to make a visual check of the cockpit area.
New York and Washington are among the most heavily guarded places in the United States. For the first time in the his- tory of this policy being implemented, no interceptors were sent up, in spite of the fact that not one but four aircraft were in- volved.
It would have taken approximately five minutes for any fighter from, Andrews Air force Base to intercept the aircraft that struck the Pentagon, for example. Aircraft were on standby on the morning of September 11, according to the official air force website, although the contents of the site were changed two days after the attacks to say that no aircraft were available that morning (a strange circumstance, considering the sensitiv- ity of the area and the number of fighters stationed there). (Ruppert, 2002)
The air force had not five minutes, but more than an hour to carry out interceptions. [For this, see the next contribution in this issue, Editor]
Virtual Hijacking
The natural assumption of every single viewer of the Sep- tember 1 1 attacks was that human beings were at the controls of the aircraft. What could they be but hijackers? Since they were also committing suicide, what could they be but terrorists? But what at first sight seems impossible sometimes turns out to be not only possible, but the actual explanation of events. Al- though I shall be using an in-principle argument, it must be recognized that the 'devil is in the details' and that certain fea- tures of the scheme I have worked out might have to be imple- mented in another way. About the main conclusion, however, there can be little doubt. The thing is do-able.
In a modern commercial airliner like the Boeing 757 or 767, all control signals from the pilot and co-pilot go through the flight control system (FCS) (Safford, 1975) (Spitzer, 1987). The heart of the system is a computer with three processors to ensure reliability of operation. Each processor is able to run separate versions of what is essentially the same software. Only one processor runs at a time, but the pilot can switch from one processor to another if he suspects a malfunction. Each proces- sor, like any multi-mission computer, has an operating system.
If something goes wrong with the computers or with the flight control system generally, a manual override is initiated by the pilot. This allows the pilot to fly the aircraft manually — unless he is dead.
The simplest possible scheme for converting a modern commercial airliner into a flying fuel bomb involves two ele- ments: a) two small canisters of lethal gas hidden in the air- craft's ventilation ducts and triggered either by a timer or by radio signal, b) a small information implant (three numbers) in the flight control system and a means to trigger it.
The agent of choice for part a) would probably be fast- acting sarin, a lethal nerve gas that, at the dose levels to be used in a hijacking, would incapacitate every human being in the air- craft within a minute of first breathing the gas. Should the oxy- gen masks all pop out of the ceiling, it would make no differ- ence to the outcome. One breath of the deadly gas would be more than sufficient. The symptoms described in the alternative sce- nario are all typical of sarin poisoning. Sarin degrades chemically within a short time of use, being undetectable thereafter.
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The information implant mentioned in part b) would be new coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude) in a form used by the inertial navigation system (INS), which is part of the air- craft's flight control system (FCS). The central problem of this analysis is to determine which of two ways of achieving this goal is most efficient. In what I call the 'custom job,' a pre- installed virus-like code implant in the flight control com- puters), triggered like the gas canisters (either by timer or by radio signal), sends new coordinates to the INS. No more than a few lines of code would be required: there would be a time/signal check followed by an instruction to replace the Los Angeles coordinates by the ones stored in memory location so- and-so. In the 'installed base' method (Vialls, 2001), the soft- ware already exists in the FCC operating system, awaiting its use (presumably) as a counter-hijacking facility. This software would be able to read the new coordinates directly by radio from the ground. It has proved impossible to document this possibility from reliable sources.
In the custom job, installation of the unfriendly software and hardware would be carried out on selected aircraft during routine maintenance periods. The agents carrying out the instal- lation might pose as mechanics or even cabin cleaners. In the cockpit they would install the special software patch in all three FCS processors, if necessary. In a maintenance port of the plane's air supply system, they would install two custom-made sarin gas canisters, each with its trigger. Such installations are actually the easy part of the overall operation, depending on how much 'cooperation' the organization receives. Although it would not be crucial, access to aircraft maintenance and loca- tion schedules would be very useful to the agents, giving them more time for installation on specific aircraft, instead of having to make the installation on additional aircraft, which might or might not be used.
The components of the FCS that concern us here are the flight control computer, the INS, and the autopilot. During most commercial flights, the pilot places the aircraft on auto- pilot, as guided by the INS. The autopilot manages the air- craft's control surfaces to guarantee a smooth, level flight, automatically compensating for various forms of disturbance, such as turbulence and other factors. Autopilots have been around for over fifty years and have grown increasingly so- phisticated with time. They do a superb job of what might be called 'local control,' keeping the aircraft on its present head- ing, altitude, and so on. However, autopilots have no idea where they're going, so to speak. That information must come from the INS. The destination coordinates, stored in the FCC, may be called up by the pilot and sent to the INS. Routinely, commercial pilots engage the INS and autopilot together, the INS continually sending new directions to the autopilot to keep the aircraft on course.
Inertial navigation systems have been around for approxi- mately thirty years and, like autopilots, have been the subject of tremendous development and sophistication. According to Ed- ward Safford, dean of American avionics:
"The plane can fly any course in the world without the
need for a navigator or external navaids. " (Safford, 1975)
Present INS capabilities are even more sophisticated, posi- tioning an aircraft over the center of a runway hundreds of
miles from the point of insertion. Such accuracy is adequate to accommodate the precise three-dimensional coordinates of the impact sites of the WTC towers and the Pentagon.
The agency carrying out the attacks would, after clandestine installation of software implants of the kind outlined above, simply trigger the whole operation when it was determined that the target aircraft was flying in INS/autopilot mode. The gas canisters would then be triggered and after about five to ten minutes the software implant would feed the new coordinates to the INS. The flight would be managed smoothly, the direction being changed as soon as the new destination coordinates were in place. The changes in direction that took place on September 1 1 would be visible on ground radar (transponders or no trans- ponders) as a 'hard left' or a 'hard right.' (This is precisely how Air Traffic Control personnel described the turns.) By inserting more than one set of coordinates, it would also be possible to program a more complicated flight, with several changes of di- rection.
Virtual Phone Calls
However an electronic hijacking might be managed, the or- ganization responsible would also be sure to add other elements to the basic plan, not only developing lists of ghost riders, but sending fake cell phone calls from some of the passengers. The following analysis focuses on Flight 93, from which more al- leged cell phone calls were made than from the other three flights combined. It could be called the 'Cell phone Flight.' The calling operation would be no less complex and require no less planning than the virtual hijacking itself.
Any analysis of the cell phone and "airfone" calls from Flight 93 must begin with some basic, high-altitude cell phone facts. According to AT&T spokesperson Alexa Graf, cell phones are not designed for calls from the high altitudes at which most airliners normally operate. It was, in her opinion, a "fluke" that so many calls reached their destinations. (Harter 2001) In the opinion of a colleague of mine who has worked in the cell phone industry, it was a "miracle" that any of the calls got through from altitude. An aircraft, having a metal skin and fuselage, acts like a Faraday cage, tending to block or attenuate electromagnetic radiation. One can make a cell phone call from inside an aircraft while on the ground because the greatly weakened signal is still close enough to the nearest cell site (re- lay tower) to get picked up. Once above 10,000 feet, however, calls rarely get through, if ever.
Here is the statement of an experienced airline pilot:
"The idea of being able to use a cell phone while flying
is completely impractical. Once through about 10,000 feet,
the thing is useless, since you are too high and moving too
fast (and thus changing cells too rapidly) for the phone to
provide a signal. " (AVWeb, 1999)
People boarding aircraft for the last decade or so have all heard the warnings to turn off their cell phones for the duration of the flight. The reason for this has nothing to do with interfer- ence with aircraft radio equipment, which is all electronically shielded in any case. Instead, the FCC has requested that air- lines make this rule, owing to the tendency for cell phone calls made from aircraft at lower altitudes to create 'cascades' that may lead to breakdown of cell site operations.
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The cascade problem is more likely at altitudes of 10,000 feet or lower, where reaching a cell site, although still a touch- and-go matter, is more easily accomplished. However, because of its superior position, the cell phone may reach several cell sites at once. This can create problems, as software that deter- mines which site is to handle the call makes its judgment based on the relative strength of calls. If the call is made from an overhead position, it may well not be able to distinguish rela- tive strength at different cell sites. When this happens it is de- signed to close off the calling channel, selecting another chan- nel in its place. But the same problem of deciding which cell site should handle the call also occurs on the new channel, so the new channel is closed, and so on. One by one, in a rapid cascade that would last only seconds, all the channels would be closed, leading to a network-wide breakdown. [Fraizer 2002]
Although it was practically impossible for any calls to get through early in the hijacking of the Cell phone Flight, when it was at or near cruising altitude, there would be no theoretical difficulty after its slow descent over Pennsylvania. But it was then just as unlikely that no cell phone network cascades would occur. On the morning of 9/1 1, no such cascades occurred. Two more elements of doubt thus weigh against the official account.
It must also be remarked that the alleged hijackers of the Cell phone Flight were remarkably lenient with their passen- gers, allowing some 13 calls. However, it would seem highly unlikely that hijackers would allow any phone calls for the simple reason that passengers could relay valuable positional and other information useful to authorities on the ground, thus putting the whole mission in jeopardy.
The following analysis of the actual calls is based on text assembled by four reporters of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. [Roddy et al. 2001] The calls were mostly rather brief and it must be borne in mind that, with the exception of two recorded messages, the persons called would not necessarily recollect the exact words which either they or the caller used.
Following a delay in its scheduled departure time of 8:01 am, Flight 93 reached its cruising altitude of approximately 30,000 feet about 40 minutes into the flight. At about this time the INS/autopilot would have been engaged. And at about this time, the aircraft was 'hijacked,' according to several cell phone calls.
CALL Al: A man claiming to be Tom Burnett called his wife Deena in San Ramon, CA around 9:20 to Deena's best recollection:
Deena: "Are you alright?"
Caller: "No. I'm on United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. The plane was hijacked. We are in the air. They've already knifed a guy. There is a bomb on board. Call the FBI."
CALL B: Just before 9:30 am, a man claiming to be Jeremy Glick called Lyz Glick, who was visiting in-laws in the Cats- kills of New York state. The phone was answered by Click's mother-in-law, JoAnne Makely:
JoAnne: "Jeremy. Thank God. We're so worried."
Caller: "It's bad news. Is Liz there?"
The caller went on to describe Arabic-looking hijackers wearing red headbands and carrying knives. One had told the passengers he had a bomb. The caller asked if it was true that planes had been crashed into the World Trade Center. She con-
firmed this. The caller mentioned that another passenger had heard the news on his/her cell phone.
CALL A2: The man claiming to be Tom Burnett called Deena Burnett again around 9:30 am. As Deena later described his call, "He didn't sound frightened, but he was speaking faster than he normally would." He told her there were hijack- ers in the cockpit.
Deena: "A lot of planes have been hijacked, but they don't know how many."
Caller: "You've got to be kidding."
Deena: "No."
Caller: "Were they commercial planes or airliners?" Deena: "I don't know." Caller: "Okay. I've got to go."
CALL C: A man claiming to be Mark Brigham called Brig- ham's sister-in-law, Cathy Hoglan, who was being visited by Brigham' s mother, Alice. Cathy took the call and handed the phone to Alice with the remark, "Alice, talk to Mark. He's been hijacked."
Caller: "Mom? This is Mark Brigham." (Alice Brigham ac- counts for this strange announcement as due to her son being flustered.)
Caller: "I want you to know that I love you. I'm on a flight from Newark to San Francisco and there are three guys who have taken over the plane and they say they have a bomb."
Alice: "Who are these guys?"
Caller: (after a pause) "You believe me, don't you?"
Caller: "Yes, Mark. I believe you. But who are these guys?"
(After another pause the line went dead.)
CALL D: A man claiming to be Todd Beamer on a United Airlines airfone had some trouble getting through to anyone but the Verizon customer service center, where the operator relayed the call to Verizon supervisor, Lisa Jefferson at 9:45 am. (Veri- zon is a large communications company that has the contract for airfones on United airlines equipment.) The man told Jeffer- son that the plane had been hijacked, that he could see three hi- jackers armed with knives, one of them claiming to have a bomb. He described how the passengers had been herded to the rear of the aircraft, guarded by the one with the bomb. He asked the supervisor to call the Beamer family on his behalf.
Caller: "Oh! We're going down. [Pause] No. We're okay. I think we're turning around." (It was approximately around this time that the flight, then passing near Cleveland, made a hard left toward Washington, DC.)
CALL A3: The man claiming to be Tom Burnett called Deena Burnett again.
Deena: "They're taking airplanes and hitting landmarks all up and down the east coast."
Caller: "Okay. We're going to do something. I'll call you back."
CALL Fl: At 9:47, the answering machine of Lome Lyles recorded a call that he thought was from his wife, CeeCee. The woman could be heard praying for herself, her family, and even for the souls of the hijackers.
CALL B (cont'd.): State police, talking to Jeremy Glick' s mother-in-law, asked her to relay a question to Jeremy. Did he know where his plane was? He didn't know, but said they had changed direction.
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Caller: "I need you to be happy and I will respect any deci- sions that you make."
He told Ms Lyles that the passengers were about to take a vote on whether to take back the aircraft. Should they try?
Lyz: "Honey, you need to do it." They spoke of weapons. The caller joked.
Caller: "I have my butter knife from breakfast."
CALL G: About this time, Phil Bradshaw, husband of flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw, received a phone call from a woman who identified herself as his wife.
Caller: "Have you heard what's going on? My flight has been hijacked. My flight has been hijacked by three guys with knives."
Phil asked her who was flying the plane.
Caller: "I don't know who's flying the plane or where we are. I see a river."
Bradshaw: "Be safe and come home soon."
The caller then explained that she had to go. She planned to prepare boiling water in the galley — to pour on the hijackers.
CALL H: Sometime after 9:30, Fred Fiumano received a call from someone claiming to be his friend, Marion Britton. The caller was crying, stating that the plane had been hijacked and that two passengers had already been killed. Fiumano tried to console his friend, stating that the hijackers were probably go- ing to take her for a ride. "You'll be alright."
CALL I: Jack Grandcolas in San Rafael, CA, received a call from a woman claiming to be Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, his wife. The message, as recorded on his answering machine, was short:
Caller: "Sweetie, pick up the phone if you can hear me. (pause) Okay, I love you. There's a little problem with the plane. I'm fine and comfortable for now [...]"
She asked Jack to pass along her love for everyone, then passed the airfone to her seat-mate.
Caller: "Now you call your people."
CALL J: Esther Heymann received a call from a woman claiming to be her stepdaughter, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, also Grandcolas' seat-mate.
Caller: "Mom, we're being hijacked. I just called to say good bye."
Heymann: "Elizabeth, we don't know how this is going to turn out. I've got my arms around you." Wainio said she could feel them.
Heymann: "Let's look out at that beautiful blue sky. Let's be here in the moment. Let's do some deep breathing together." (pause)
Caller: "It hurts me that it's going to be so much harder for you than it is for me."
CALL A4; Once again, just before 10:00 am, Deena Burnett received a fourth phone call.
Caller: "A group of us are going to do something."
Deena: "No, Tom. Just sit down and don't draw attention to yourself."
Caller: "Deena, if they're going to crash the plane into the ground, we have to do something. We can't wait for the au- thorities. We have to do something now."
Caller: "Pray. Just pray, Deena. We're going to do some- thing."
CALL D (cont'd): The caller who had identified himself as Todd Beamer appears to have remained connected with Lisa Jefferson, the Verizon supervisor, almost to the end of the flight. At this point the caller was reciting the 23rd Psalm from the Bible
CALL F2: The caller identifying herself as CeeCee Lyles fi- nally got through to Lome Lyles.
Caller: "Babe, my plane's been hijacked." Lyles: "Huh? Stop joking."
Caller: "No Babe, I wouldn't joke like that. I love you. Tell the boys I love them."
As the couple prayed together, Lome heard sounds that he would later interpret as passengers preparing a counter-attack.
Caller: "They're going to force their way into the cockpit."
CALL D (cont'd): Having finished his prayer session with Lisa Jefferson, the caller claiming to be Todd Beamer left the phone connected. Jefferson recalls hearing the now famous ral- lying cry.
Caller: "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."
CALL J (cont'd): Esther Heymann, who believed herself to be talking with her step daughter, heard her last words.
Caller: "I need to go. They're getting ready to break into the cockpit. I love you. Goodbye."
CALL G (cont'd): Phil Bradshaw heard his caller's last words to him.
Caller: "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."
CALL F2 (cont'd): Lome Lyles recalls hearing the last mo- ments of Flight 93.
Caller: (screams) "They're doing it! They're doing it! They're doing it!"
The caller screamed again, said something he couldn't hear, then the line went dead.
Operational Details
How on Earth could any organization fake the calls I have just described? In the middle of writing this very sentence, I was interrupted by someone calling through the back door of our porch: "Is anybody home?" It was my son who was visiting us from out of town. He had been out with some old friends. I went out to the back porch to greet him.
It wasn't my son at all, but the neighbor next door wanting to borrow our ladder. I marveled that I could have mistaken his voice for that of my son. It has a different timbre and tone, yet the context of expectation over-rode my ability to discriminate sounds. This example proves nothing, of course, but it illustrates a fact that has been used by spiritualists and mediums to beguile clients for hundreds of years. Forlorn people, hoping to contact a deceased loved one, would typically report satisfaction with a se- ance. "I swear, it was my son. There was no mistaking that sweet little voice." The context leads the recipient of such a message actually to hear the loved one. Of course, the tone of voice must be approximately correct. In the case at hand, persons faking the calls would have the further advantage of electronic fuzzing, the tendency for audio lines with very low bandwidth to transmit the human voice somewhat imperfectly. In addition, extreme emo- tional stress alters the human voice even more markedly, causing the person addressed to make unconscious allowances.
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To obtain names and relevant personal data, operatives would have taken the flights in question several times before September 1 1 , engaging fellow passengers in friendly conversa- tion: "Take this flight often?" It would not take very long to build a file of names, secretly recorded voices, and a host of more or less intimate details from the lives of passengers. The ultimate list might run to several dozen passengers, not all of whom would be on Flight 93 the fateful morning of September 11.
Meanwhile, a script has been written to portray a sequence of events. The backbone of the script, a timeline running from the moment of sarin/INS insertion up to the point of impact, would consist of a sequence of pseudo-events such as the first appearance of the hijackers, their announcement, scuffles with passengers, the back-of-the-plane strategy session, and the final rush to the cockpit. It would also include real events such as the aircraft's turn mentioned in Call D.
Imagine then an operations room (of which every intelli- gence agency has several) with a screen on which the events appear as text, keeping all operatives on the same page, so to speak. An operations director would have much the same role as a symphony conductor, cueing various operators as the script unfolds. An audio engineer would have several tapes already made in a sound studio. The tapes, which portray mumbled conferences among passengers or muffled struggles, replete with shouts and curses, can be played over any of the phone lines, as determined by the script, or simply fed as ambient sound into the control room. Trained operators with headsets make the actual calls. Each operator has studied tapes for sev- eral of the individuals, as recorded on prior occasions of Flight 93, as well as profiles of the individuals, including a great deal of personal information, some of it obtained 'on the ground,' as they say. As soon as the passenger lists become available, each operator scans his or her own copy, searching for the names that he or she will specialize in, discarding the rest.
The introductory sentence, somewhat fuzzily transmitted, would carry the hook: "Honey, we've been hijacked!" Thereaf- ter, with the belief framework installed, a similar live voice could react to questions, literally playing the situation by ear, but being sure to include pertinent details such as "Arab- looking guys," "boxcutters," and all the rest. If the contact has been made successfully in the operator's opinion, with the es- sential information conveyed, it is always possible to terminate the call more or less gracefully, depending on what portion of the script is under execution. "Okay. We're going to do some- thing. I'll call you back." Click.
Each operator has a voice that is somewhat similar to that of the person he or she is pretending to be. It is not particularly difficult to do this. For example, it is far easier to find someone with a voice that can be mistaken for mine (especially over a telephone line) than it is to find someone who looks like me (even in a blurred photograph). Moreover, most people can learn to mimic voices, an art well illustrated by comedians who mimic well-known personalities.
Operators would have received general instructions about what do to in the course of a call. Although each has been sup- plied with at least some 'intimate' details of the target's life, there would be techniques in place for temporizing or for avoiding long conversations where basic lack of knowledge
might threaten to become suddenly obvious, and so on. Three such techniques are praying (from text, if necessary) (Calls D, Fl, and J), crying (as in call H), or discussing the other attacks (as in call A2 and B).
In the case at hand, Flight 93, various calls may now be ex- amined as a consistency check. First, it must be noted that the longest call was made by the person who identified himself as Todd Beamer (Call D) to someone whom the real Todd Beamer did not know at all, Lisa Jefferson, a Verizon supervisor. Among the shorter conversations were Calls B, A2 and D.
Early in Call B (Glick), the caller indicates that it is general knowledge among the passengers that other aircraft have been hijacked that morning. Near the end of this conversation, when the caller discusses possible actions against the hijackers, he makes a joking remark:
Caller: "I have my butter knife from breakfast."
This is strange because it implies that the caller had already finished breakfast, whereas meals are not normally served until the aircraft reaches cruising altitude, about the time that the al- leged hijacking began.
In Call A2 (Burnett), Deena Burnett describes the other hi- jackings.
A2 Deena: "A lot of planes have been hijacked, but they don't know how many."
Caller: "You've got to be kidding." Deena: "No."
Caller: "Were they commercial planes or airliners?"
Here, the caller seems to be temporizing. Not only are hi- jackings of commercial (i. e., cargo) aircraft extremely rare events, the caller's apparent surprise contradicts the implication of Call B (made earlier) that the other attacks were already gen- eral knowledge among the passengers of Flight 93.
Call C, also short, may point to a possible fumble. Was one of the callers asleep at the switch?
Caller: "Mom? This is Mark Brigham."
Caller: "I want you to know that I love you. I'm on a flight from Newark to San Francisco and there are three guys who have taken over the plane and they say they have a bomb."
Alice: "Who are these guys?"
Caller: (after a pause) "You believe me, don't you?"
Caller: "Yes, Mark. I believe you. But who are these guys?"
Alice Brigham attributed the strange introductory sentence to her son being flustered. But if Mark chose his mother to call, over all other people in the world, would he be likely to make such a mistake? Would thoughts of his mother not be upper- most in his mind, no matter what happened in the passenger compartment? A caller can only make such a mistake if he or she is thinking of something entirely unrelated to the reason for the call or the person being called and that can hardly have been the case in the alleged circumstances.
Instead of answering his mother's question, the caller seems uncertain. Mrs. Brigham has just asked "Who are these guys?" and the caller answers with another question. Does she believe his previous sentence? The caller, who may have lost confi- dence in the call, terminates the conversation (possibly pound- ing his forehead in silent frustration).
Caller C never called back. Of the 13 phone calls allegedly made from the plane, four were from one caller (A: Burnett),
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two were from another (F: Lyles), and the remaining seven calls were not repeated. Non-repeated calls would thus repre- sent final exits with either flubbed results or a smooth perform- ance. The repeated calls give continuity to the script, as well as opportunities for myth-building. Here's Todd Beamer, known to friends (and observers) as a kind of go-ahead, take-charge guy. Perfect. He will be the 'reason,' decided well in advance of September 1 1 , why the plane crashes well short of the White House.
Caller D, the one alleged to be Todd Beamer, apparently had difficulty using his airfone. This could be explained if the telephone used by the caller was not part of the Verizon system. However, the caller could easily access the Verizon supervisory office over an ordinary telephone, explaining that he had been trying to reach someone. Strangely enough, caller D preferred to talk to Lisa Jefferson (asking her to call his loved ones for him), even though he was about to die.
One other cell phone call bears mention. Barbara Olson, a well-known Washington lawyer and, more recently, television political pundit, died aboard American Airlines Flight 77, the aircraft which apparently struck the Pentagon building. News reports (San Diego, 01), (BBC, 01), (Telegraph, 01) described two calls which Ms Olson made to her husband, Ted Olson, So- licitor General of the United States. The caller said she had locked herself in the lavatory and attempted to place the call to Mr. Olson ten times before the charges were accepted. The first conversation, in which the caller said, "Can you believe this, we are being hijacked," was cut short, for some reason. In a second attempt, the caller described men with box-cutters over- powering the flight crew, then asked: "What do I tell the pilot to do?"
The Olson call is neither less nor more mysterious than the calls previously analyzed. In this case it might be asked what advice Ted Olson could possibly have for the pilot (who was al- legedly at the back of the plane with the passengers).
The foregoing analyses certainly do not prove that the cell phone operation actually took place. But they clearly demon- strate that all the conversations are consistent with such an op- eration, along with a sprinkling of tantalizing clues that are more consistent with the operation than actual in-flight calls. That is all one can hope for from such an analysis, even if the alternate scenario is correct or approximately correct.
In any case, there are serious doubts that the calls could have been made from cruising altitude or that they would not trigger cell phone network cascades at lower altitudes.
Interceptor Reprise
If Flight 93 were hijacked by the alternate method outlined in this document, it may have been deliberately crashed. This is easily achieved by the INS portion of the method. Allegedly heading for the White House, the INS coordinates would be set for the (preselected) point of impact in an empty Pennsylvania field. The point would lie on a line pointing in the general di- rection of the White House. The aircraft's flight path would be a long, shallow dive, producing a high-speed crash would be sure to leave an extensive debris field.
Three F-16 fighters were apparently scrambled from a base in Langley, Virginia to shoot down Flight 93. They were, by
one estimate, about 14 minutes away from the aircraft when it crashed. Such a late scramble would be guaranteed to miss.
In the case of all four flights it would be crucial, once such an automated hijacking was in progress, that air force fighters not be deployed anywhere in their vicinity. As part of operating procedure during such intercepts, pilots are instructed to inspect the aircraft visually, including a look into the cockpit. Has the aircraft been hijacked? Under this scenario, the pilot would see the flying officers slumped over in their seats — and no guys with dark beards.
Virtual Hijackers
One clue that the alleged terrorists are not everything they seem comes from the rather deep gulf between the stereotype and the reality. We have already seen, in the case of Ziad Jar- rah, a young man who has no commitment to Islam, suddenly converted into a fiendish hijacker. As far as religion goes, al- most every hijacker has displayed the same troubling discrep- ancy, as we shall see. At the same time, Jarrah earnestly wished to become an aeronautical engineer. If Islam (or 'Muslim fanat- ics') did not divert him from his chosen course in life, who did? Perhaps no one.
Another puzzle is presented by Hani Hanjour, a small, shy lad who, throughout his teens in Saudi Arabia, wanted nothing more than to be a flight attendant. Despite the fact that Hanjour displayed little interest in his flying lessons, abandoning courses that he did not flunk outright, he was the alleged pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 which crashed into the Penta- gon.
In 1998, Hanjour received a one-hour lesson after which, in the words of manager Wes Fults, "He had only the barest un- derstanding of what the instruments were there to do." Yet by April 1999, by means that FAA officials refuse to discuss, Han- jour had obtained a commercial pilots license, capping several years of trying. In April of 1996 he attended a 30-minute class at the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Oakland California, never to return. The next month finds him in Scottsdale, Ari- zona, where he signed up for lessons at CRM Flight Cockpit Resource Management. Hanjour left after three months with no certificate. He returned one year later, stayed only a few weeks, then left again. Over the next three years, Hanjour called the Scottsdale School seeking re-admission but was rebuffed as having no pilot potential. In 1998 Hanjour enrolled at Sawyer Aviation in Phoenix, Arizona. He attended a handful of ses- sions on the flight simulator, then disappeared once again. (Goldstein etal, 2001)
In August of 2001, Hanjour arrived at the Freeway Airport in Bowie, Maryland. His attempt to get himself checked out in a single-engine plane ended once more in failure. Owing to his general incompetence, officials at Bowie refused to rent an air- craft to him. (Goldstein et al., 2001) In view of the fact that Hanjour could not manage to fly single-engine aircraft, it seems amazing that Hanjour piloted the Boeing passenger liner that hit the Pentagon right on target.
The other major discrepancy between stereotype and reality in the case of the alleged 19 (or 20) hijackers is religion. Per- haps Hanjour was the most religious of the lot, having been rather devout, according to his older brother, throughout his
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youth. Hanjour was never observed flouting the rules of Islam openly, as several of his better-known colleagues were. Some of the other alleged hijackers were observed drinking alcohol and engaging in sexually promiscuous behavior.
How could it be possible for more than a dozen 'hijackers' to live in the United States for more than a year, doing what the media have reported them to have done, and yet not be hijack- ers at all? In this section. I will demonstrate how the men in question could have carried out all the actions reported of them, yet be entirely innocent of any 'terrorist' activity. It all depends on what the men themselves thought they were doing. Pres- ently, I will sketch a 'dirty trick' (one among many possibili- ties) that will provide an in-principle answer this question.
First, it will be necessary to develop a list of the '19' al- leged hijackers and to sort out some of the confusion surround- ing their names. A preliminary list furnishes us with 19 names distributed among four aircraft:
United Airlines Flight 175 (WTC South Tower)
- Marwan Al-Shehhi
- Fayez Ahmed
- Mohald Alshehri
- Hamza Alghamdi
- Ahmed Alghamdi
American Airlines Flight 1 1 (WTC North Tower)
- Waleed M. Alshehri
- Wail Alshehri
- Mohamed Atta
- Abdulaziz Alomari
- Satam Al Suqami
American Airlines Flight 77 (Pentagon)
- Khalid Al-Midhar
- Majed Moqed
- Nawaq Alhamzi
- Salem Alhamzi
- Hani Hanjour
United Airlines Flight 93 (Pennsylvania)
- Ahmed Alhaznawi
- Ahmed Alnami
- Ziad Jarrah(i)
- Saeed Alghamdi
Were there 20 'terrorists' and not 19? One Amer Kenfer was also alleged to be on United Airlines Flight 175. Perhaps it doesn't matter, since five of the hijackers' names released by the FBI to the media proved to be mistakes. Kenfer, along with four others listed below, were identified by the FBI not only by name, but by occupation and birthdate. They all turned out to be not only alive and well, but outraged that they had been identified as 'terrorists:'
- Waleed Al Shehri (BBC, 2001)
- Abdulaziz Al Omari (BBC, 2001)
- Ahmed Ibrahim Al Ghamdi (Islam Online, 2001)
- Fayez Mohammad al-Shehri (Islam Online 2001)
How could 25 percent of the hijackers be so misidentified? According to FBI sources, Arabic names are easy to confuse with one another. But how does one confuse birth dates and oc- cupations? In more than one instance, the passports of these gentlemen had been stolen sometime in the past (Telegraph, 2001). This fact is certainly consistent with the alternate sce-
nario, although the mainstream US media has opined that pass- ports were stolen by Al Qaida operatives prior to 2001. It is not clear why Al Qaida would carry out an operation that would de- flect blame onto other Arabs. What possible difference could it make?
If the passports were, in fact, the incriminating element, then how would the FBI have gotten hold of them? They would not have survived the crashes and must have been left with rental vehicles. Such an explanation only strains our credulity even further. Were all 20 passports left in the rental vehicles? It is more reasonable to suppose that the FBI obtained the infor- mation from another source.
Magic Carpet Air Services
Here is but one way that the trail left by the alleged hijack- ers could have been engineered prior to Sept. 1 1 : Each of the men who are alleged to have been in the United states prior to the fateful day were lured there by promises of lucrative em- ployment. Imagine a false front operation called 'Magic Carpet Air Services.' Here is the sales pitch delivered by an agent pos- ing as a senior executive officer of a startup corporation by that name:
"We propose to call our new venture 'Magic Carpet Air Services. ' Although it will operate primarily as a high- speed executive jet service between major Middle Eastern cities and beyond, it will also explore a variety of other op- portunities, including specialized cargo operations, agricul- tural spraying and other things that we are continuing to look into. We need, at this point, a group of talented gen- tlemen like yourselves to form the managerial core of the company. Other managers and staff will be recruited later, but we need a core staff and you gentlemen will have the in- side track. In the months to come, you will be given every opportunity to display the kind of initiative and imagination that we are looking for. You will be paid, of course, and paid generously. But those of you who survive the training period will find yourselves paid far better, once we launch the enterprise.
You will all attend a variety of training sessions, includ- ing flight training, in order to familiarize yourselves with the various operations of the proposed air services. By no means will you achieve professional levels but we want you to understand the various operations of our proposed com- pany. It is well known that managerial staff with some hands-on experience make better decisions than those with- out it. We will also require that you set a good example for the employees to follow by encouraging good health habits, eating sensibly, getting lots of sleep, and working out regu- larly.
Now I must ask, for reasons of corporate security, not to discuss the company or its goals with anyone, including friends and relatives. We want to be in position to get the jump on our competitors, once we have begun operations. " Since only nine of the alleged 19 hijackers left paper trails, the training scenario may apply only to the nine persons. The operation would have commenced no later than early 1999, the time when the paper trail begins. Of particular interest are the public activities of Mohamed Atta, as remembered by several
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different witnesses in 2000. In mid-March of that year, he moved into the apartment of Amanda Keller, a woman of dubi- ous virtue with hair dyed a bright pink. Keller can no longer be located. (MCMN, 2002b) Between the end of April and the third week of May, Johnette Bryant, a Dept. of Agriculture loan officer, states that Atta applied for a USDA loan to buy a crop duster. (MCMN, 2002b) The FBI has vehemently denied both allegations, possibly because Atta was supposed to be still in Hamburg, recruiting potential suicide pilots such as Ziad Jar- rah.
The official timeline has Atta arriving in the US on June 3,
2000. Previously bearded, Atta had shaved his face clean. In July of 2000, Atta and Marwan AlShehhi enrolled at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida, while Nawaq Alhamzi and Khalid Al-Midhar began flight training in San Diego, California. (ABC, 2001) The latter pair terminated training early, owing to problems with English. They are alleged to have gone to Ari- zona for more training. In Florida, where most of the trainees lived, several may have tried to follow the health advice of the 'executive' by regularly attending the World Gym in Boynton Beach, Florida. They showed little enthusiasm for the work- outs, however. "Waleed Al-Shehri, Wail Alshri, and Satam Al- Suqami simply clustered around a small circuit of machines, never asking for help [. . .] never pushing any weights." Atta, on the other hand, worked out very hard. (Golden & Moss, 2002)
At Huffman Aviation, where Atta and Al-Shehhi were en- rolled for flight training, they apparently told the director that they would be working in the United Arab Emirates. They ob- tained their pilots licenses on December 21, 2000. On Decem- ber 29 of that year, both men took three hours training each on a Boeing 727 flight simulator in Opa-locka near Miami.
The alleged hijackers, notably Atta, left a well-marked trail involving witness memories, video surveillance tapes, car rental records, and so on. Those in charge of the Magic Carpet opera- tion would know the movements of their charges, later greatly facilitating the FBI investigation by being able to suggest spe- cific venues where records would be available. The movements of Atta, for example, are now known through a few scattered records. (ABC, 2001) They are consistent not only with a terror- ist planning a hugely ambitious attack on the United States, but with an earnest dupe (of relatively low morals) keen on earning the huge salary promised by Magic Carpet Air Services.
The trail left by Atta, as we have it today, involves only those activities that support, in one way or another, his role as a terrorist. However, each activity has a parallel interpretation under the Magic Carpet scenario. For example, in January of
2001, Atta flew to Madrid, returning after six days. Was he consulting with the upper echelons of Al Qaeda or taking a va- cation thanks to his inflated salary? In February and March of 2001, Atta and others are remembered as having inquired about crop-dusting planes at the agricultural spraying firm of South Florida Crop Care. Again in August of the same year, Atta and friends made inquiries at another crop-dusting operation in Belle Glade, Florida. Were they planning anthrax attacks or learning about crop-dusting operations for Magic Carpet Air Services?
From mid-May to mid- June, Atta and Al-Shehhi lived in Hollywood, Florida while they took flight training. For Al
Qaeda or Magic Carpet? In late June, Atta traveled to Las Ve- gas, meeting there with Alhazmi, Hanjour, Al-Shehhi and Jar- rah. Another Las Vegas meeting in mid- August included Han- jour and Alhamzi. Were these an Qaeda planning sessions or a Magic Carpet business meetings?
A succession of flights by Atta in June and July of that year (Ft. Lauderdale to Boston, Boston to New York, Newark to Ft. Lauderdale) are just as consistent with the Magic Carpet opera- tion as they are with the al Qaeda scenario. Again, in early July, Atta flew to Spain again, touring the country for 12 days, an ac- tivity which is somewhat more consistent with an extended va- cation (encouraged by Magic Carpet executives) than it is with an al Qaeda strategy session.
On July 31, a waitress and bartender at the Pelican Alley restaurant in Venice, Fl overhear Atta, Al Shehhi, and a third heavy-set gentleman are overheard arguing about money. Big guy:
"We're talking $200,000. We've got to answer to the family! "
The waitress thought they were mafia. (MCMN, 2002a) The figure of $200,000 happens to coincide with the estimated cost of the September 11 operation to al Qaida. In this context it could as easily be an argument about salaries.
Equally bland activities in mid-August involve a four day car rental by Atta and Al-Shehhi in Pompano Beach and a three-day rental of a Piper aircraft at Palm Beach. Were they visiting Al Qaeda operatives or touring air service sites or just vacationing?
After purchasing two tickets for American Airlines Flight 1 1 (on the internet) in late August, Atta appeared in Shuckum's Oyster Bar in Hollywood, Florida. Atta drank Cranberry juice and played the pinball machine while his colleague Al-Shehhi drank alcohol with a third, unidentified man. Was the third party another hijacker or an executive with Magic Carpet?
On what may well have been their last night on Earth, Atta, Alomari, and Al-Shehhi visit the Red Eyed Jacks sports bar in Daytona Beach, where they spent heavily on drinks and lap dancers. There may or may not have been a fourth party with them. The celebrants were careful to engage in some audible (and possibly prompted) America-bashing, saying "Wait 'til to- morrow, America is going to see bloodshed." They were also careful to leave a Qur'an on the bar, of course. (CBS News, 2001)
Later that evening, Atta and Alomari checked into the Com- fort Inn in South Portland. Security cameras caught them at a nearby gas station, at two separate ATMs and in the local Wal Mart. Was this the night before the alleged suicide missions or, as far as the Magic Carpet trainees were concerned, just another business trip? (ABC, 2001) In what must have been a superhu- man effort, the FBI spent literally thousands or hours going through miles of videotape from every ATM, gas station and supermarket in the area. How else could they have come upon the tapes so quickly?
It is quite possible that no Magic Carpet operation, or any- thing like it, was ever launched. Instead, Atta and at least some of the others were well aware that they were 'going through motions,' earning large sums of money in the process, thanks to CIA paymasters. One piece of evidence that supports this pos-
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sibility are rumors that appeared in Newsweek magazine, the Washington Post and the Miami Herald in 2001 (MCMN, 2001). These media outlets alleged that Atta had attended In- ternational Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery Alabama.
The 'mother of all hijackers' is, of course, Ousama bin Laden himself. Since September 11, 2001, videotapes of bin Laden pontifications have turned up in abandoned houses, caves, and other venues with a frequency sufficient to warrant charges of littering against Al Qaida. The tapes, which were made with unbelievable incompetence, have extremely fuzzy sound tracks which can be interpreted to mean almost anything. In the earlier tapes, this can be put down to casual incompe- tence, but in the later ones, which the makers would know were going to media outlets, the fuzzy sound tracks are frankly not possible. The tapes varied in content, from discussions of the Trade Center attacks to explanations of why Al Qaida is attack- ing western targets. The scripts are laid out in contemporary Is- lamic boilerplate which students of Middle Eastern politics would instantly recognize.
Suspicion that some or all of the interpretations are essen- tially faked has been widespread since late 2001. For example, a videotape reported to contain the complete text of a declama- tion against the west was found in late November, 2002. The text, subsequently published in many newspapers, aroused widespread indignation against bin Laden and Al Qaida (not to mention an accompanying deepening of the mistrust with which Arabs and/or Muslims are viewed in North America). The tape was analyzed by the Swiss Al Institute, which issued a statement saying that the audio portion of the tape was not compatible with the video portion, being superadded at another time. (SMH, 2002)
Mopping up
The extensive 'training program,' the hitech hijacking, and the cell phone operation would involve dozens of persons. If Mossad were to carry out such an operation, for example, many of the operatives would be Mossad officers (katsas) and helpers (sayanim), as well as outsiders with appropriate talents for various special tasks. Although Mossad personnel can be counted on to keep their mouths shut, what can one do about those who might talk too much? Harsh though it may seem, the simplest thing to do is to get rid of the unreliable personnel — for good.
The simplest and most effective way to 'mop up' after a highly sensitive operation involving many operatives is to put the less reliable ones on a passenger aircraft with a cover story that they are being sent to an out-of-the-way place 'for their own good' until things blow over. On October 4th, 2001, less than one month after the aircraft hijackings, a Sibur Airlines TU-154 flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk went down in the Black Sea, killing all 77 passengers and aircrew. Initial reports indicated two explosions, one at altitude, the other just before impact, leading some to suspect that two bombs had been placed aboard the aircraft. However, the story changed within days when US 'officials' stated that the aircraft had been shot down by Ukrainian missiles during military exercises, a charge flatly de- nied by Ukrainian military spokespersons. (CNN, 2001)
What is 'Complicated'?
Some readers have complained that the alternate scenario spelled out in this document is 'too complicated.' Complica- tion, however, is a purely relative matter. What may seem 'too complicated' to me or to you may turn out to be quite simple when the goal of an operation is taken into account. Consider, for example, the relatively minor goal of an operation described by former Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky while still working for Mossad and assigned to a European post. (Ostrovsky & Hoy, 1990)
It was learned from internal sources that the Syrian Air At- tache was going to Europe to buy furniture for new administra- tive quarters that had been constructed for the Syrian Air Force in Damascus. Mossad planned to take advantage of this infor- mation by planting listening devices in the furniture at some point between purchase and delivery. The perceived potential payoff in new information made the following 'complicated' operation worthwhile.
With three weeks before the purchase was to be made, op- eratives had to move fast. They set up a dummy furniture bro- kerage company, printed expensive brochures, trained an offi- cer (katsa) in sales techniques and sales lingo, brought in coop- erators (sayanim) to stage a scene, followed the movements of both the Air Attache and his Aide during the few days they were in Brussels, waited for the Attache to leave for Paris, fol- lowed the Aide to an expensive furniture store, brought in a ka- tsa pretending to be a furniture broker, brought in a sayan pos- ing as a satisfied customer, had the sayan thank the katsa pro- fusely within earshot of the Aide for a wonderful deal, had the sayan leave, and had the katsa engage the Aide in conversation, showing him a brochure of expensive furniture.
The Aide was so impressed by the marvelous deal, as spelled out by the katsa, that he agreed at once and sat down with the katsa to draw up a shopping list of tables, chairs, and what have you. The deal became irresistible when the Aide realized that he could pocket the difference between list price and the actual amount being charged by the 'salesman.' Mossad then purchased the items, shipping two of the tables to Israel by private jet, where Mossad experts spent days installing complicated microphones and radio gear, sending the tables back to Brussels, then shipping the entire purchase to Syria.
The overall operation was a good deal more complicated than this. It may well be asked, 'Why so complicated?' espe- cially for such a minor payback. Given the value of the goal to Mossad, however, and the mere fact that the plan was feasible, Mossad proceeded with the operation. Under the circumstances, it may well have been the simplest method. According to Os- trovsky, such operations are routine. Modern intelligence or- ganizations like Mossad not only gather intelligence, they cre- ate 'facts,' frame people, carry out assassinations, organize po- litical events, and even provide training for militants in other countries.
How much more complication would be allowable for a really important operation like hijacking four aircraft and blam- ing it on Arab terrorists? Considering the payoff, the methods outlined here are not only relatively simple, but not atypical of methods in the Mossad playbook.
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Who Benefited?
If the September 11 attacks are regarded as an unsolved crime, the most reasonable approach is to follow standard criminal investigation technique, asking in effect, 'Who bene- fited?' Assuming for the moment that Al Qaida is not the per- petrator, the finger of suspicion swings 180 degrees; Ehud Sprinzak, an Israeli expert on terrorism at the Hebrew Univer- sity in Jerusalem, referred to the attacks as follows:
"From the perspective of Jews, it is the most important
public relations act ever committed in our favor. " (Jackson,
2001)
This observation ties in with a news report that was nearly lost in the post- September 1 1 shuffle.
Within an hour of the attacks on the WTC towers, five Is- raelis were spotted in a parking lot near Liberty State Park in New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from the twin trade towers. Three of them stood on the roof of a white cube van, taking videos of the disaster and, according to an eyewit- ness who watched them through binoculars, shouting with cries of joy and mockery. (Melman, 2001) The witness, who watched the five from a building adjacent to the parking lot, re- ported their strange behavior to the FBI immediately. The five men, described as "Israeli tourists," were picked up by the FBI, two of them being subsequently identified as working for "Is- raeli intelligence." (ABC, 2002) The five were held for ap- proximately two months, then deported to Israel. This appar- ently real celebration provides an ironic contrast with the faked Palestinian one.
Certain elements in the United States also stand to benefit. First, there was an immediate excuse to engage in a lengthy military exercise that would involve the expenditure of hun- dreds of millions of dollars worth of munitions, a plus for the arms industry. Strategically, the United States would also bene- fit from the ensuing 'war on terrorism' because it promises to secure American control of the extraordinarily rich Central Asian oil fields via Afghanistan, the natural pipeline corridor to the Persian Gulf. Of course, Afghanistan was the alleged base of Al Qaida operations.
If the United States and Israel are jointly culpable of this crime, it would not be unfair to ask what role each played in the disaster. Under the alternative scenario, it would seem likely that by secret arrangement Israel's Mossad took care of the air- craft attacks under a separate (and purely oral) 'contract.' That way, the right hand would not know what the left hand was do- ing, except in the most general terms; elements in the US gov- ernment would have known that some kind of attack was com- ing.
In one of many ironic twists that accompany this scenario, the declaration by the US Department of State that they had definite information that Al Qaida was responsible may actu- ally have been true.
Implications of the Alternative Scenario
If the September 1 1 attacks were planned and executed as a combined clandestine operation between Mossad and some US agencies such as the CIA and NSA (with God knows what in- volvement by the Joint Chiefs and the White House), it can be reliably inferred that other attacks blamed on Al Qaida are also
fakes or 'dirty tricks' in CIA parlance. These would include the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Au- gust 7, 1998, as well as the attack on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, in the port of Aden, Yemen.
Self-attack is the theme of some scandalous proposals of the Joint Chiefs and the National Security Agency to launch attacks on American targets, blaming them on Cuban terrorists some decades ago. (Bamford, 2001) The schemes code-named "Op- eration Northwoods" and "Operation Mongoose" both involved terror attacks, mostly on US soil. The attacks included blowing up a ship at the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, sinking boatloads of refugees, mounting a 'communist' terror campaign in Miami which included bombings and the assassination of prominent Cuban exiles. More to the point, a proposal signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and presented to President Kennedy involved a 'real or simulated' airliner hijacking which would result in the deaths of all aboard. The purpose of the proposal was to blame Cubans, recruiting public opinion to the point where the media would back a direct military invasion of the country. (Kennedy rejected the plan.)
It would consequently be fair to infer that Al Qaida itself is not exactly your run-of-the-mill terrorist operation. (As the only Arabic word in the Scrabble dictionary, "qaid" might well be the inspiration for the original name of the organization.) The possibility emerges that Al Qaida is a front under joint Israel- US control. Links between bin Laden and the CIA, as well as between the bin Laden and Bush families are well known. With "Al Qaida" performing the necessary terrorist services, the United States gets a free hand to engage in whatever military operations it likes, while Israel gets a free hand on the West Bank and Gaza. This in no way precludes the possibility that some members of Al Qaida may think they belong to a genuine terrorist organization, including bin Laden himself. (The whole operation becomes increasingly reminiscent of Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22, wherein Milo Minderbinder sells US Air Force bombing services to the Germans.)
Unfortunately, we are not living in a novel or a movie. However, the surreal quality of the September 1 1 attacks, noted by many observers, may be an unwitting, grassroots comment on the overly-dramatic, near-cinematic quality of the attacks. What might be called 'Hollywood evil' (rather than the 'banal evil' thought to lie behind the Jewish Holocaust, for example) has been invoked in the form of a terrorist who has no real cause, who, having being made insane by his religion, simply loves to kill people and looks forward to martyrdom. (Or per- haps he is "envious of western civilization.") Such imagery has played a key role in media reporting on the Middle East since well before the September 1 1 attacks.
Why Now?
Under the alternate scenario, the timing of the September 1 1 terror attacks can be directly related to Israel's discomfiture, one should say extreme discomfiture, with a slow turning of the tide of public opinion in the west against Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. The change is more noticeable in Europe than in North America, but Israel has feared that as time went on, more and more Americans would become disillusioned with Israel and there would be increasing political pressure on
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elected officials to begin changing America's relationship with Israel.
This was not to be tolerated, as more than $100 billion dol- lars (probably a conservative estimate) has been sent from the United States to Israel since the 1950s. With this money and only with this money, most of it 'foreign aid,' much of it in do- nations, Israel has been able to survive economically. Much of the foreign aid money goes right back to the United States, be- ing spent on American arms.
Among the pressure items prompting Israel to act now was the UN conference on racism in Durban which addressed, among other matters, the issue of Israeli state racism. American and Israeli delegates walked out of the conference as soon as the item was raised.
Another pressure item was the filing by Palestinian com- plainants of a brief to the Belgian Court of International Law on the June 18 2001. The Palestinians were survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon in 1982. Their brief singled out Ariel Sharon and other Israelis. It came just one day after a BBC documentary concluded that Sharon was indictable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Thought to constitute a strong legal challenge, the complaint seemed likely to lead to trial. Sharon would be charged under the 1993 Law for the Re- pression of Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and of additional Protocols I and II. Sharon took the prospects of a trial seriously enough to hire a Belgian lawyer Michele Hirsch to derail the proceedings.
American policy in the Middle East, broadly conceived, has come to resemble Israel's policy on the West Bank and in rela- tion to neighboring Arab states. Israel, which has been using the word 'terrorist' for several decades, urging it upon the US media at every opportunity, uses the label to obscure the roots of 'terrorism' in its own policies in the West Bank, Gaza, and in neighboring Arab states. Its continuing response to Palestin- ian militancy seems calculated to guarantee a continuing source of violence that permits Israel to pose as a victim, rather than a perpetrator.
The Media
Sadly, ever since the Gulf War, the US media, particularly television news operations, have been under strict control of the Pentagon in any and all matters relating to military reporting. (MacArthur, 1993) Gone are the days of the independent re- porter roaming the war zone, as was the case in Vietnam. Re- porters who do not toe the Pentagon line, adopting its interpre- tation of events, are simply not invited to press briefings. The
media have, furthermore, been subtly influenced into adopting the 'terrorist' spin urged upon it by parties with an interest in promoting hatred of Arabs and/or Muslims.
In this context the American news media have become en- thusiastic partners in the war on terrorism, serving narrow in- terests that it interprets as 'American.' Under the scenario de- veloped in this report, it can be reasonably be suggested that had the media not allowed its own best interests to be under- mined in this way over the last two decades, the September 1 1 attacks would not have taken place. For without the guarantee of a news media already programmed to fall instantly into line with the 'terrorism' spin urged upon it by the Pentagon, the planners of this tragedy would surely have thought twice. (Where are Woodward and Bernstein when you really need them?)
By allowing the 'terrorist' to become a separate, amorphous entity, straight out of Central Casting, the media have guaran- teed that legitimate struggles for self-determination, driven as they sometimes are to violent expression, will result in more 'terrorists,' involving American forces in a never-ending search for the boogey-man of the new millennium:
"So cowboy change your ways to-day or with us you will
ride chasing this devil herd across these endless skies. "
Summary
This document describes an alternate method to achieve the effects witnessed on the morning of September 11, 2001. There can be little doubt that the method, consisting of the sarin/INS component and the cell phone operation, will work. No claim is made that this method was actually used, only that a clandestine operation by the side with the most to gain happens to be more consistent with various facts on the ground (about which there is no dispute) than is the standard explanation involving 'Arab hijackers' and Al Qaida.
These facts include the political background, wherein Al Qaida is the only terrorist organization ever to attack a target or targets without claiming responsibility, and wherein Israel and the United States are the real beneficiaries of the attacks.
The alternate scenario is also more consistent with the fol- lowing events than is the standard explanation: intelligence leaks; the virtual celebration in Palestine on the day of the at- tacks; the prior attempt to blow up the World Trade Center towers; the missing interceptors; the missing passengers; the missing black boxes; the (apparently) planted evidence; the mystery of Ziad Jarrah. In short, if the entire constellation of events behind the September 1 1 attacks is regarded as a jigsaw
puzzle, the pieces of the
About the Author
Dr. Dewdney is a well known Canadian computer scientist, who used to write Mathematical Recrea- tions for Scientific American magazine, author of nu- merous books and academic publications, and Pro- fessor Emeritus of the University of Western Ontario. A. K. Dewdney is also a student of Middle Eastern af- fairs and a supporter of human rights. He can be reached by email at akd@uwo.ca or by telephone at (519) 6798-8105. Academic website: www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/akd/.
puzzle already in place would represent the facts which everyone knows and about which there is no dis- agreement from any quar- ter. The pieces not yet placed include the White House scenario and the al- ternate scenario described here. The first piece has the right overall shape but,
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when we try to actually put it in the proposed space of the puz- zle, it doesn't actually fit. The piece proposed by the White House must find a very different place in the puzzle, perhaps in the cover-story corner.
One may approach the problems posed by the official White House explanation of September 1 1 from a scientific point of view. What is the probability that the standard explanation is correct? To find out, one would simply multiply the probabili- ties of the component parts: Thus if one says that interceptors are sent up only half the time when airliners go off course (in- stead of all the time), that black boxes are found only half the time (instead of virtually all the time), that passengers are miss- ing from passenger lists half the time (instead of rarely), that at least one out of 1 00 cell phone calls get through at least half the time, then the probability that all four elements are present in an event (without taking any of the other elements into account) is no more than one-sixteenth. This should be enough to make any rational person suspicious, especially as this brief probabil- ity analysis goes out of its way to favor the official explanation.
The author is aware of allegations made by others that the Pentagon attack was in some manner faked, involving a much smaller aircraft, that the WTC towers were assisted in their demolition by planted explosives, and that approximately 130 Israelis that should have been among the WTC dead were not. Such possibilities have been excluded from the present analysis for the sake of simplicity and without further comment. Also excluded is the analysis of potentially endless faked terror at- tacks, such as the bombing in Bali (Israeli-made C4 plastic ex- plosive discovered on site) or the Washington area sniper (Mr. Muhamad's name was not actually Muhamad, he had no 'white van,' etc. etc.).
Recommendations
The mere possibility that the September 1 1 attacks had a quite different source demands two responses:
1 . An open, public inquiry into the attacks should be set up under an independent judicial body. Investigations currently under way in the US Congress may well be compromised by the attempts of Bush and Cheney to limit their scope, itself a suspicious circumstance.
2. The evidence presented in the trials of Salameh, Ayyad and others in relation to the 1993 Trade Center bombing should be re-examined by an independent judicial body in open hear- ings.
Recommended Reading
N. M. Ahmed, The War on Freedom: How and why Amer- ica was attacked, September 11, 2001, Tree of Life Publica- tions, CA, 2002. This book is ably researched and documented by a well-known scholar with impeccable credentials. The pre- sent article complements Ahmed's book which misses only one major element — a genuine alternate scenario for the events of September 11, 2001. It can be found in many book stores or or- dered on amazon.com, as well.
References
Note: the reference technique used here is non-standard in that it lists the refer- ence in parentheses next to the reference itself. This was done to ease the proc- ess of checking or consulting references by lay readers who may be unfamiliar
with reference systems.
- (ABC, 2001) ABC. 2001 (November 12). A mission to die for. Four Corners, ABC TV. Retrieved October 3, 2002 from http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/default.htm.
- (AVWeb, 1999) DahlerC. 1999. AVWeb letters. Retrieved November 20, 2002 from http://www.avweb.com/other/avma9910.html
- (Bamford, 2001) Bamford J. 2001. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra- secret National Security Agency, New York, NY: Houghton-Mifflin.
- (BBC, 2001) British Broadcasting Corporation, 2001. Final calls from doomed flights, Retrieved November 3, 2002, from http://news.bbc.co.Uk/l/hi/world/americas/1539193.stm
- (CBS News, 2001) CBS News (AP), 2001. Focus on Florida. September 124, 2001. Retrieved October 2, 2002, from
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/14/national/main31 1268. shtml
- (CNN, 2001) Cable Network News. 2001. Trade Center Victims. Retrieved January 22, 2002, from
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ual75.victims.ht ml
- (Dror, 2001) Dror Y. 2001. Odigo says workers were warned of attack. Isra- el: Ha 'aretz. (September 27)
- (Eager & Musso, 2001) Eager TW, Musso C. 2001. Why did the World Trade Center collapse? Science, engineering, and speculation. Journal of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society . 53 (12): 8-11. http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/01 12/Eagar/Eagar-01 12.html Re- trieved December 17, 2001.
- (FAA, 1998) 1998 (July 3). Special military operations. Chapter 4, section 5, Federal Aviation Agency Order 7610.4J. http://www2.faa.gov/ATpubs/MIL/Ch4/mil0405.html
- (FAA, 2001) 2001 (July 12). Emergency situations. Chapter 10, section 2-5, Federal Aviation Agency Order 71 10.65M. http://www.faa.gov/ATpubs/ATC/ChplO/atcl002.html
- (Fraizer, 2002) Fraizer J. How do I log on while in flight? North American Network Operators. (June 27 2002)
http://www.irbs.net/internet/nanog/0206/0907.html . Retrieved Sept. 3, 2002.
- (Golden & Moss, 2002) Golden T, Moss M. Terrorists exploited anonymity and freedom offered by US. Rutland Herald. September 30, 2002. Retrieved September 30, 2002, from
http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/Story/343 1 1 .html
- (Goldstein et al., 2001) Goldstein A, Sun, LH, Lardner G Jr. Hanjour an unlikely terrorist, (adapted by) Cape Cod Times. October 21, 2001. Re- trieved September 30, 2002, from
http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/200 1/capecodtimes 1 02 1 0 1 .ht ml
- (Harter, 2001) Harter B. Final Contact. Wireless Review (November 1, 2001) www.wirelessreview.com/ar/wireless final contact_2/ Retrieved Sept. 3, 2002.
- (Ostrovsky & Hoy, 1990) Hoy C, Ostrovsky V. 1990. By Way of Deception. Toronto, Canada: Stoddart.
- (IIIEa, 2001) Institute of Islamic Information and Education. 2001. Who did it and why? Retrieved November 4, 2001, from www.iiie.net/ Arti- cles/WTCbombing.html. (See also http://www.iiie.net/Articles/WTCbombing.html)
- (IIIEb, 2001) Institute of Islamic Information and Education. 2001. Passen- ger Lists: Where were the Arabs on those airplanes? Retrieved December 19,
2001, from http://www.iiie.net/Septl 1/PassengerLists. html - LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
- (Islam Online, 2001) Islam online.net. September 17, 2001. Saudi suspects in US attacks were not in the US. Retrieved September 29, 2002, from http://islam-online.net/English/News/2001-09/17/articlell.shtml
- (Jackson, 2001) Jackson DZ. 2001. A call for us to be fair to Palestinians. Boston, MA: The Globe. (September 19, 2001) See also http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0921-01.htm. Retrieved December 17,2001.
- (MCMN, 2001) Hopsicker D. 2001. Atta, Dekkers & the Venice Flying Cir- cus. Mad Cow Morning News, November 13, 2001. Retrieved October 2,
2002, from http://www.madcowprod.com/index9.html
- (MCMN, 2002a) Hopsicker D. 2002. Says waitress of terror pilots: "I thought they were mafia!" Mad Cow Morning News, April 8, 2002. Re- trieved October 2, 2002, from http://www.madcowprod.com/index23a.html
- (MCMN, 2002b) Hopsicker D. 2002. FBI Bungles Terrorist Atta's Timeline By At Least Three Months. Mad Cow Morning News, September 18, 2002. Retrieved December 9, 2002, from http://www.madcowprod.com/index34.html
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- (MacArthur, 1993) MacArthur JR. 1993. Second Front. Berkeley, CA: Uni- versity of California Press.
- (Maclntyre, 2001) Maclntyre L. November 2001. Portrait of an Enigma. The Fifth Estate. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
- (Melman, 2001) Melman Y. 2001. Five Israelis detained for puzzling behav- iour after tragedy. Israel: Ha 'aretz. (September 22, 2001)
- (Morales & DeRienzo, 1995) Morales F, DeRienzo P. 1995. Who bombed the World Trade Center? FBI bomb builders exposed! The Shadow. (Octo- ber-January 1995) Retrieved November 1, 2001, from http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur46.htm
- http://www.smh.com.aU/articles/2002/l l/29/1038386299712.html(NTSB, 2002) National Transportation Safety Board. Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR)
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/CVR_FDR.htm Retrieved February 2, 2002.
- (Pringle, 1994) Pringle P. 1994. World Trade Center bombing: Four guilty of New York bomb attack. To
http://www.nationalpost.com/features/siege/March_5_1994.html Toronto, Canada: National Post. (March 4) Retrieved November 10, 2001 - NO LONGER RETRIEVABLE
- (Quinn, 2001) Quinn A. 2001. Widow presses FBI to release hijack cockpit tape. Reuters News Service. San Francisco. (December 27) (See also http://www.discussanything.eom/forums/archive/15/2001/l 1/4/2421 for text of story.)
- (Roddy et al., 2001) Roddy DB, Lash C, Levin S, and Silver JD. Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Oct 28, 2001. See also http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/2001 1028flt93mainstoryp7. asp, Re- trieved August 24, 2002.
- (Ruppert, 2002) Ruppert MC. 2002. Interviewed on YTV, Canada. 8:00 pm,
March 16, 2002.
- (Safford, 1975) SaffordEL. \91 5. Aviation Electronics Handbook. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books.
- (San Diego, 2001) San Diego Union-Tribune. 2001. Author calls spouse from doomed plane. Retrieved November 8, 2002, from http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/firstweek/20010912- 9999_lnl2olson.html
- (SMH, 2002) Sydney Morning Herald. Nov. 29, 2002. Swiss institute brands latest bin Laden tape a fake. Retrieved December 05, 2002, from http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/ll/29/1038386299712.html
- (Spitzer, 1987) Spitzer CL. 1987. Digital Avionics Systems, New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
- (Stern, 2001) Stern D. 2001. News embargo after Israeli security leak. Stern Intel (Canada). September 13, 2001. Retrieved September 13, 2001, from sternintel@hotmail.com
- (Telegraph, 2001) Harrison, D. 2001. Revealed: the men with stolen identi- ties. The Telegraph. London. September 23, 2001. Retrieved September 29, 2002, from
http://www.unansweredquestions.org/timeline/200 l/telegraph09230 1 .html
- (Ummat, 2001) Ummat, Pakistan. September 28, 2001.
- (Vialls, 2001) Vialls J. 2001. "Home Run": Electronically hijacking the WTC attack aircraft. Retrieved January 22, 2002, from http://www.geocities.com/mknemesis/homerun.html
- (WRH, 2001) WhatReallyHappened.com - United Airlines Flight 175 Pas- sengers. 2001. Retrieved January 22, 2001, from http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/U175pass.html
Cell Phone Experiments in Airliners
By Germar Rudolf
Since the topic discussed above seems to be of utmost im- portance, I decided to make my own experiments while travel- ing from Chicago, IL, to Burlington, VT, to a family anniver- sary of a friend.
Phones
- Audiovox CDM 9000 with Verizon Wireless network.
- Nokia 8260 with Cingular Wireless network.
Travel Data
1. Trip: Aircraft: Airbus A320. United Airlines Flight 568. Take off from Chicago O'Hare on Friday, July 18, 2003, nomi- nal take off at 18:05 central summer time. Weather conditions: sunny, only a few clouds at both start and arrival in Burlington, VT, at 20:54 eastern summer time.
2. Trip: Aircraft: Airbus A3 19. United Airlines Flight 397. Take off from Burlington, VT, on Sunday, July 20, 2003, 17:40 eastern summer time. Weather conditions: sunny, only a few clouds at both start and arrival. Arrival at Chicago O'Hare at 19:00 central summer time.
Experiments
While starting, only the Audiovox phone was used. While the plane was still accelerating on the runway, I dialed into my voice message box and received a clear and immediate connec- tion just when the plane took off. I hung up right away and di- aled again. As the plane ascended quickly, I received another immediate and clear connection, but this time I entered my PIN number waiting for the message service to grant me access to
my messages. However, the connection was lost, and any at- tempt to reestablish a connection failed. After another minute, the phone complained with a loud alarm tone that no service was available. According to a later inquiry with the pilots, the plane reached an altitude above ground of 15,000 ft (4,575 m) within five minutes.
During this high altitude flight at 37,000 ft, no service was ever available. As soon as the plane started to descend toward Burlington, both cell phones were switched back on in an at- tempt to get any service. As soon as the phones gave up on searching service, they were turned off and turned on again so that the phones would again search for service. Several minutes before the pilot put out the landing gear at 20:49 EST, both phones indicated that they had found service, but any attempt to get any connection to the voice message boxes with either of the phones failed. On 20:51, two minutes after the landing gear was pulled out, a clear and stable connection to the voice mes- sage system could be established by both phones. This connec- tion could be reestablished at will until the plane touched down at 20:54. Asked for his assistance, the pilot explained that he had put out the landing gear at an altitude above ground of 2,000 ft (610 m) at a speed of 200 knots (230 mph/371 km/h).
Since no information could be gained about the exact alti- tude above ground for the exact time when a cell phone connec- tion gets interrupted during take off — not even this point in time is exactly known — no experiments were done at take off from Burlington.
When descending toward Chicago, the Nokia/Cingular phone could not establish any service at any time until after the aircraft had landed. The Audiovox/Verizon cell phone managed
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to get service just as we flew in over Lake Michigan from the east at an estimated altitude above ground of around 6,000 feet. However, none of the uninterruptedly made attempts to get a connection was successful. This cell phone signal was lost again as we flew out toward the center of the lake, and was re- established as we approach the west coast of Lake Michigan. Uninterrupted attempts to establish a connection to the mailbox continued to fail until one minute after the pilot had pulled out the landing gear some 6 to 8 miles west of the coast of Lake Michigan at 18:56. The first successful connection appeared at 18:57. The second one established right thereafter was immedi- ate and clear until the plane touched down at 19:00. According to the pilot, the landing gear must be pulled out when flying at an altitude of 1,500 ft at the latest (457.5 m). He could not re- member exactly at which height he actually pulled the gear, but stated that it was well above that mark, probably at some 2,200 to 2,500 ft (671-762.5 m) at a speed of some 200 knots (230 mph/371 km/h).
Whereas the Nokia phone user was seated one seat away from the window in both descends, the Audiovox user was seated two seats away from the window during the first descent toward Burlington, but right at a window during the descent to Chicago. As a matter of fact, this cell phone was held only 10 cm away from a window to ensure best reception.
Conclusion
Burlington, VT, lies within a more rural area, whereas Chicago is the third largest city of the U.S. with one of the best developed cellular networks. In spite of this, the results were similar in both cases for the Verizon Wireless network, which prides itself on being the best developed in the U.S. The reason why the second phone failed to establish any service in the Chicago area until after landing is unknown.
Cell phones traveling in airliners can get a service signal at heights up to some 6,000 ft, but it is not pos- sible to make a connection, at least not while traveling at the usual cruising speed of a normal airliner (500- 550 mph). Since in all cases (if at all) connections could only be established well after the pilots have pulled out the landing gear at some 2,000 ft and at a cruising speed of 230 mph or less, it seems safe to conclude that in summer of 2003, no connection could be made with a cell phone from an airliner flying in the U.S. when above an altitude above ground of 2,000 ft (610 m) and when traveling with a speed over 230 mph. Considering the fast descent of the planes and the fact that they kept slowing down as they ap- proached the runway, the height at which a connection could be established might actually be as low as 1,500 ft (457.5 m), and the speed around 200 mph.
The reason why a connection could only be estab- lished at some 1,500 ft above ground despite the fact that a signal was present already at some 6,000 ft may be that the speed of the traveling aircraft was too high at higher altitudes. It seems safe to say that the speed must be under 230 mph in order to establish a stable
connection, a speed which an airliner can reach only during landing, with landing gear, air brakes and flaps all the way out.
It is generally agreed upon that all the airliners that crashed on September 11, 2001, flew at a high cruising speed of 500 mph and more until they crashed. Thus, it seems safe to say that no cell phone of any type could have established any stable connection to any cell site at that speed, no matter which height the planes flew at. This is particularly true for United Airlines flight 93, which did not only fly at high speed but also at a rela- tively high altitude during the time when the alleged cell phone calls were placed.
Appeal to All Readers
Anybody who is willing to provide his own input on this problem by testing his cell phone's capability to make connec- tions from aircrafts during descent is more than welcome. We will publish such data either with the name of the experimenter or anonymously if indicated. Please provide the following data:
- type of phone, network used;
- plane flown, airline, flight no., date and time of take off (nominal) and landing (actual);
- weather conditions prevailing when landing;
- exact times when you did what or when you succeeded to establish a connection, and since pulling out the gear is a nice reference point, make a note of this as well and ask the pilot while deplaning at what height he pulled the gear.
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|
I
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Stand Down • Was 9/11 Lack of Air Defense Deliberate?
By Mark Elsis
"In the beginning of a change,
the patriot is a scarce and brave man,
hated and scorned.
When his cause succeeds however,
the timid join him,
for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. " Mark Twain
"Fear not the path of truth, for the lack of people walking on it. "
Robert Francis Kennedy
With a minute-by-minute chronology from 7:59 a.m. until 10:06:05 a.m., this article will dismantle the press release of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is- sued on Wednesday, September 18, 2001. This press release encompasses the (supposed) response times of the United States Air Force on Tuesday, September 11, 200 1.1
This article will explain exactly what happened for the al- most one hour and fifty-three minutes that elapsed between the time American Airlines Flight 1 1 lost voice contact with air traffic control and was hijacked at 8:13:31, until the time United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:06:05.
Also, when reading this article, please keep in mind the fol- lowing five very significant pieces of information.
1) The United States Government will spend more on the military in fiscal year 2003, than all the rest of the countries on Earth combined. Current expenditures are 437 billion and our past obligations are 339 billion, this equals 776 billion. 46% of our Taxes go to the Military Industrial Complex.2 This figure doesn't even begin to account for all of the off-budget, black projects, and homeland security nor the 40+ billion the United States Government will spend on intelligence in 2003.
2) The United States Air Force (USAF) is the most techno- logically advanced and the most dominant military force ever known to man. There were seven Air Stations that were armed and on full alert to protect the continental United States on Tuesday September 11, 2001. The Air National Guard exclu- sively performs the air sovereignty mission in the continental United States, and those units fall under the control of the 1st Air Force based at Tyndall Air Force Base (AFB) in Panama City, Florida. The Air National Guard maintains seven alert sites with 14 fully armed fighters and pilots on call around the clock. Besides Tyndall AFB, alert birds also sit armed and ready at: Homestead Air Reserve Base (ARB), Homestead, Florida; Langley AFB, Hampton, Virginia; Otis Air National Guard (ANG), Falmouth, Massachusetts; Oregon ANG, Portland, Oregon; March ARB, Riverside, CA; and Ellington ANG, Houston, Texas.3
There were at least 28 other USAF bases that were in range of the 4 airliners on 91 1. 4
3) New York City and Washington D.C. are far and away the top two cities in the United States that would be targeted by terrorists.
4) NORAD is a bi-national United States and Ca- nadian organization charged with warning of attack
against North America, whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, utilizing mutual support arrangements with other commands. Aerospace control includes providing surveillance and control of Canadian and United States airspace. The job of NORAD is to know every inch of the skies over North Amer- ica.
5) Almost one hundred and thirteen minutes elapsed be- tween the time American Airlines Flight 11 lost contact and was hijacked at 8:13:31 until the time United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:06:05. One hour and fifty-three minutes went by and the USAF did not intercept any one of these four "hijacked" airlines. To understand all the rules, regulation and procedures that make this totally impossi- ble to happen, one should read The Federal Aviation Admini- stration (FAA) Standard Intercept Procedures.5
Stand Down6
1. To end a state of readiness or alert.
2. To go off duty.
3. To withdraw, as from a political contest. All times are Eastern Daylight Time.
7:59 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 a Boeing 767- 223ER with a maximum capacity of 181 passengers and 23,980 gallons of fuel, lifts off from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, bound for Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. Take-off was scheduled for 7:45.
There are supposed to be 92 victims on board American Airlines Flight 1 1 , yet when you add up the official death mani- fest list that was published on CNN.com, there are only 86 vic- tims.
The White House: Victim or Perpetrator?
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The same goes for the other three flights of 9 1 1 . Add up the passenger and crew lists from all 4 flights of 91 1 and you have officially 265 people on board. Yet when one adds up the 4 of- ficial death manifest lists published on CNN.com, there are only 229 names. Somehow 36 people are missing from the 4 CNN.com official death manifest lists, including all 19 of the hijackers. Why?7
The four airliners used on September 11th, 2 Boeing 767s and 2 Boeing 757s, had a total passenger seating capacity of 762 people.8 How could these four flights possibly be only be- tween 30.1% (229 passengers and crew) to 34.7% (265 passen- gers and crew) occupied? How could all four of these flights added together possibly be more than 65% empty?
8:01 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 a Boeing 757-222 with a maximum capacity of 200 passengers and 11,489 gallons of fuel, rolls from the gate in Newark International Airport, New- ark, New Jersey with 44 people aboard bound for San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California. United Air- lines Flight 93 will sit on the ground for 41 minutes before tak- ing off. There are supposed to be 44 victims on board, yet when you add up the official death manifest list that was published on CNN.com, there are only 33 victims.
8:13:31 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 last transmission from Boston Air Traffic Control: AAL1 1 turn 20 degrees right American Airlines Flight 1 1 responds: 20 right AAL1 1. A few seconds later the Controller asks: AAL11 now climb maintain FL350 [35,000 feet] Controller: AAL11 climb maintain FL350 Controller: AAL11 Boston. There is no response from Ameri- can Airlines Flight 1 1 .
8:14 to 8:20 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 goes off course and is hijacked.
8:14 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222 with a maximum capacity of 181 passengers and 23,980 gallons of fuel, lifts off from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, bound for Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. Take-off was scheduled for 7:58. There are supposed to be 65 victims on board, yet when you add up the official death manifest list that was published on CNN.com, there are only 56 victims.
8:17 a.m.: After 3 minutes and 30 seconds of lost voice con- tact with American Airlines Flight 11, the FAA should have started to implemented Standard Intercept Procedures.9
8:20 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 transponder signal stops transmitting Identification, Friend or Foe (IFF) beacon signal. If a pilot loses their transponder, the air traffic control- lers (ATC) console immediately alerts him to this fact since he no longer has the transponder code and altitude. This causes the controllers a great deal of trouble, especially in the busiest air- space on earth, the northeastern corridor.
After 6 minutes and 30 seconds of lost voice contact, and now with the transponder signal stopped on American Airlines Flight 1 1 , there is no excuse left, the FAA should have started to implement Standard Intercept Procedures. They did this for the late great golfer Payne Stewart after only a few minutes of lost voice contact from his Lear Jet. Why not now? Or did the FAA implement Standard Intercept Procedures and tell NORAD between 8:14 to 8:20? Did NORAD then sit on (Stand Down) this information for 26 to 32 minutes, until they finally
tell 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts to scramble at 8:46? Somewhere be- tween 8:13:31 and 8:20, American Airlines Flight 11 has been hijacked, and by 8:20 its transponder also is turned off, and NORAD doesn't order Otis to scramble until 8:46.
8:20 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223 with a maximum capacity of 200 passengers and 1 1,489 gallons of fuel, lifts off from Dulles International Airport about 30 miles west of Washington D.C. and the Pentagon, bound for Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. Take-off was scheduled for 8:01. There are supposed to be 64 victims on board, yet when you add up the official death manifest list that was published on CNN.com, there are only 56 victims.
8:24:38 a.m.: The pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, John Ogonowski, or one of the hijackers activates the talk-back but- ton, enabling Boston ATC to hear a hijacker say to the passen- gers: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport. Nobody move." Appar- ently, one of the hijackers confused the aircraft's radio with its public-address system. Air traffic control responds, "Who's try- ing to call me?"
8:25 a.m.: Boston ATC notified several air traffic control centers that a hijack is in progress with American Airlines Flight 11. Boston air traffic control first lost communication with American Airlines Flight 11 more than 11 minutes ago. What took them so long to start to implement procedure? Why didn't they also notify North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at this time? Or did they?
If they did follow procedure and notify NORAD at 8:25 and NORAD followed protocol and ordered the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massa- chusetts to scramble at say 8:26 — two F-15s would have been airborne by no later than 8:32 — these F-15s would have had at least 14 minutes and 26 seconds to reach the WTC before American Airlines Flight 1 1 impacts the north side of the North Tower (1 World Trade Center) at 8:46:26. If these two F-15s were flying at top speed, 14 minutes and 26 seconds is exactly twice the amount of time needed to reach the WTC. These two F-15s could have been at the WTC in just over 7 minutes, or as early as 8:39. Even a spokesperson for Otis said that their F-15s could reach the WTC in 10 to 12 minutes, which would have them there at 8:42 to 8:44.
These two F-15s could have easily intercepted American Airlines Flight 1 1 . If only Boston ATC, which notified several air traffic control centers that a hijack is in progress with American Airlines Flight 1 1 at 8:25, had also notified NORAD. Why didn't they? Or did they follow procedure, and notify NORAD, and NORAD is lying about it? Let me state that it is NORAD 's job to know every inch of the skies over North America, so they must have known that American Airlines Flight 1 1 was hijacked somewhere between 8:14 and 8:20.
8:26 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 is heading west- northwest, its location is between Albany and Lake George, New York, when it suddenly makes a 100 degree turn to the south and starts heading directly toward New York City. American Airlines Flight 1 1 finds the Hudson River and fol- lows it all the way south until it impacts the north side of the North Tower of the WTC.
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Almost 40 miles north of the WTC on the Hudson River is by far the number one terrorist target in the United States, In- dian Point and its 3 nuclear power stations, 2 of which are online. These 3 nuclear stations have accumulated 65 years worth of stockpiled highly radioactive waste. Indian Point is only 24 miles north of the New York City border. It is sur- rounded by the densest concentration of population in the United States, the northeast corridor. Why did American Air- lines Flight 1 1 fly directly over the number one terrorist target in the United States, Indian Point nuclear power stations, and not hit it? (read more about this at 8:39 a.m.)
8:33:59 a.m.: Another transmission from American Airlines Flight 1 1 , "Nobody move please. We are going back to the air- port. Don't try to make any stupid moves."
8:36 a.m.: A NORAD spokesman, Major Mike Snyder, has been reported to have said that the FAA notified NORAD of a hijacked aircraft, American Airlines Flight 11, about 10 min- utes before it impacted into the World Trade Center.
8:37 a.m.: Flight controllers ask the United Airlines Flight 175 pilots to look for the lost American Airlines Flight 11, about 10 miles to the south. They respond that they can see it. They are told to keep away from it. This incident is not in- cluded in The New York Times flight controller transcript. Why?
8:38 a.m.: Boston ATC notifies NORAD that American Airlines Flight 1 1 has been hijacked.
8:39 a.m. American Airlines Flight 1 1 flies directly over the number one terrorist target in the United States, Indian Point nuclear power stations. Indian Point has 3 nuclear power sta- tions (1 is offline and the other 2 have been online since 1973 and 1976), which are only 24 miles north of New York City (and about 40 miles north of the WTC).
If American Airlines Flight 1 1 hits Indian Point correctly in any of three different ways, they could have caused a meltdown and a release of vast amounts of radiation. There are also a cu- mulative 65 operating years worth of highly radioactive waste stored at Indian Point. Casualties could possibly be upwards of 20 million people prematurely dieing from radiation poisoning. The whole northeast corridor from New York City to Boston would instantly become a wasteland for thousands of years.
Why did American Airlines Flight 1 1 jeopardize their mis- sion by flying another 7 plus minutes (when they could and should have been intercepted by the USAF) down the Hudson River to hit the WTC between the 94th and 98th floors where they ended up "only" killing less than half of the 3,056 people that died, when they could have hit their enemies' number one target?
The mastermind behind these "terrorists" hijackers would have soon figured out their best and only shot against the strongest military foe in the world would have been to hit them first and hit them as hard as you can. Why didn't they hit Indian Point?
If the terrorists were targeting the WTC, don't you think they would have waited until around 11:00 when these build- ings were full with 50,000 plus people? And of course, to cause the most deaths and destruction isn't it elementary to strike these buildings as low as possible, which would have been around the 30th floor?
So, why did this well planned "terrorist" attack kill only 3,056 people when they could have easily killed ten times that many? This reasoning also goes along with the Pentagon attack. Why was the Pentagon hit on the so-called "peaceful" west side, which was mostly under construction as opposed to the command center east side of the Pentagon?
If one plane didn't do the job at Indian Point, two planes most definitely would have done the job. United Airlines Flight 175 also flew very close to Indian Point; it was literally within a couple of minutes flying time.
If two planes didn't do the job (one should and two will), a third plane, United Airlines Flight 93 a Boeing 757-222 will lift off in 3 minutes from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California. Newark International Airport is within 10 minutes flying time of Indian Point.
So three of these airliners could have hit Indian Point within about 13 minutes of each other, between 8:39 and 8:52, if they had wanted to. The whole northeast corridor from New York City to Boston would instantly become a wasteland for thou- sands of years.10
8:40 a.m. Nasty and Duff are the code names of the two F- 15 pilots from the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts who would scramble after United Airlines Flight 175. Nasty says that at this time, a colleague tells him that a flight out of Boston has been hijacked and to be on alert. They put on their flight gear and get ready.
8:40 a.m.: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) noti- fies NORAD that American Airlines Flight 1 1 has been hi- jacked. Even NORAD officially admitted that the FAA told them about the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 1 1 at 8:40. As mentioned earlier, American Airlines Flight 11 lost voice contact with ATC at 8:13:31 — so for 26 minutes and 29 seconds nothing has been done. American Airlines Flight 11 lost its transponder at 8:20 — so for 20 minutes nothing has been done. This doesn't happen accidentally.
OK, the FAA notifies NORAD that American Airlines Flight 1 1 has been hijacked — what does NORAD do? Do they immedi- ately scramble the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts? No they don't, they sit on this most vital information for another six minutes.
Stand Down.
8:41:32 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 last communica- tion with the New York ATC: "We figured we'd wait to go to your center. We heard a suspicious transmission on our depar- ture from BOS [Boston] sounds like someone keyed the mike and said everyone stay in your seats."
8:42 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 a Boeing 757-222 with a maximum capacity of 200 passengers and 11,489 gallons of fuel, lifts off from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey bound for San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California. Take-off was scheduled for 8:01. There are supposed to be 44 victims on board, yet when you add up the official death manifest list that was published on CNN.com, there are only 33 victims.
8:42 a.m.: An air traffic controller says of United Airlines Flight 175, looks like he's heading southbound but there's no transponder no nothing and no one's talking to him.
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8:43 a.m.: The FAA notifies NORAD that United Airlines Flight 175 has been hijacked. NORAD has officially admitted that the FAA told them about the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 175 at 8:43. So, now NORAD knows about two hijack- ings— and American Airlines Flight 1 1 has been barreling down on New York City since turning south at 8:26, and is just 3 minutes away from impacting the WTC. What does NORAD do with this new information? Do they immediately scramble the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts? Again, no they don't, they sit on this most vital information of now two hijacked airliners.
Stand Down.
8:46 a.m.: NORAD orders the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts to scramble two of their F-15 fighters. This is from the 102nd Fighter Wing's mission statement of September 11, 2001. "Our aircraft and their crews are on continuous 24-hour, 365-day alert to guard our skies. The 102nd Fighter Wing's area of re- sponsibility includes over 500,000 square miles, 90 million people, and the major industrial centers of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C."
NORAD, by their own account, held on to the most vital in- formation of American Airlines Flight 1 1 hijacking for at least 6 minutes before ordering Otis to scramble. NORAD, by their own account, held on to the most vital information of United Airlines Flight 175 hijacking for at least 3 minutes before or- dering Otis to scramble.
NORAD may have held on to the vital information of American Airlines Flight 11 for perhaps 8 minutes, maybe 10 minutes (see 8:36 a.m. statement by NORAD spokesman, Ma- jor Mike Snyder), possibly up to 26 minutes (see 8:20 a.m. American Airlines Flight 1 1 transponder signal stopped trans- mitting its IFF beacon signal) and let us not forget that the last voice transmission of American Airlines Flight 1 1 with Boston air traffic control occurred at 8:13:31, so maybe NORAD had over 32 minutes before they notified Otis to scramble their two F-15s.
How could NORAD possibly hold on to the 8:40 informa- tion of the American Airlines Flight 1 1 hijacking, and not im- mediately scrambled Otis? How could NORAD possibly hold on to the 8:43 information of the United Airlines Flight 175 hi- jacking, and not have immediately scrambled Otis? How could NORAD, by their own account, hold on to the most vital in- formation of both of these hijackings for three and six full min- utes, before notifying Otis to scramble?
Stand Down.
Knowing that New York City and Washington D.C. are far and away the top two cities in the United States that would be targeted by terrorists, don't you think we would have also or- dered Langley AFB to scramble at 8:46 a.m. to protect Wash- ington D.C? NORAD says they actually waited until 9:24 a.m. to order Langley AFB to scramble. Thirty-eight minutes went by before anyone bothers to order fighters to scramble to pro- tect Washington D.C? No way. This is the big time Smoking Gun
Stand Down.
8:46:26 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 1 1 impacts the north side of the North Tower (1 World Trade Center) of the WTC
between the 94th and 98th floors. American Airlines Flight 1 1 was flying at a speed of 490 miles per hour.
When American Airlines Flight 1 1 struck the North Tower, "it set up vibrations which were transmitted through the build- ing, through its foundation, and into the ground," says Lerner- Lam. Those vibrations, as indicated by seismographs at La- mont-Doherty and other locations, were the equivalent of a magnitude 0.9 earthquake, one too small to be felt.
8:46 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 transponder signal stops transmitting IFF beacon signal.
8:47 a.m.: The FAA informed NORAD of American Air- lines Flight 1 1 striking the World Trade Center. NORAD says it doesn't tell the two F-15 pilots now scrambling to take-off from Otis that American Airlines Flight 1 1 has hit the WTC un- til 8:57. Why not? Especially when there is another hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175, so close to New York City — and at 8:49 it turns and heads straight on for New York City?
8:47 a.m.: NYC Fire Battalion Chief Joe Pfeiffer from the 7th Battalion puts out an emergency call stating that American Airlines Flight 1 1 impacting the north side of the North Tower (1 World Trade Center) was no accident. The plane's impact was clearly a deliberate attack, an intentional act of mass death and devastation.
As the small video crew (who shot the only video of Ameri- can Airlines Flight 1 1 impacting the WTC — the fireman video) and firemen that had eye-witnessed the first plane hit the WTC were racing to the location, Chief Pfeiffer sounded red alerts over the radio and phone; specifically stating that what they witnessed was a "direct attack" and that the airliner was clearly being directed straight at the WTC and the incident was defi- nitely not any kind of accident.
8:48 a.m.: The first news reports appear on TV and radio that a plane may have crashed into the WTC.
8:49 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 now deviates from its assigned flight path.
8:50:51 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 last radio com- munication, about 285 miles west of the Pentagon.
8:52 a.m.: Two F-15 Eagles have scrambled and are air- borne from the 102nd Fighter Wing of Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts. An F-15 has a top speed of 1875+ mph. Otis is 153 miles (according to The New York Times) eastnortheast of the WTC. They are airborne within 6 minutes of their 8:46 scramble orders. Good job. So, 38 min- utes after American Airlines Flight 1 1 has been hijacked, we fi- nally have fighters in the air. But they still don't know Ameri- can Airlines Flight 1 1 has crashed into the WTC or that United Airlines Flight 175 has turned and has been heading straight toward New York City now for 3 minutes. Why not?
Stand Down.
8:53 a.m.: A flight controller says to other airplanes in the sky about United Airlines Flight 175: "We may have a hijack. We have some problems over here right now."
8:55 a.m.: Barbara Olson, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, calls her husband, Solicitor General Theodore Olson, at the Justice Department. He is watching the WTC news on TV. She tells him: "they had box cutters and knives. They rounded up the passengers at the back of the plane." She asks
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him: "What should I tell the pilot to do?" She gets cut off; he calls the Justice Department's command center to alert them of the hijacking. She calls back and says the plane is turning around. She appears to have been the only person on American Airlines Flight 77 to call someone on the ground. Why is she the only person who calls from American Airlines Flight 77?
8:56 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 transponder signal stops.
8:56 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 goes off course and starts making a 1 80 degree turn over southern Ohio / northeast- ern Kentucky.
8:57 a.m. The FAA formally notified the military that American Airlines Flight 1 1 crashed into the WTC. Until then, the two F-15s fighters from Otis did not know the plane had crashed. Yet at 8:47 a.m., NORAD had been notified. Why does it take over 10 minutes to inform the two F-15 pilots of this? Do the two F-15 pilots know United Airlines Flight 175 has changed course, and for the last eight minutes has been heading directly for New York City? Stand Down.
8:59 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 completes its 180 degree turn over southern Ohio / northeastern Kentucky and starts heading directly back to Washington D.C. and the Penta- gon, 330 miles away.
9:00 a.m.: United Airlines systems operations transmitted a system wide message, warning its pilots of a potential "cockpit intrusion". United Airlines Flight 93, flying over Pennsylvania replies "Confirmed".
9:00 a.m.: Last radar reading on United Airlines Flight 175 is observed at an altitude of 18,000 feet, descending, with a ground speed of 480 knots.
9:00 a.m. The FAA starts contacting all airliners to warn them of the hijacking.
9:00 a.m.: The Pentagon moves its alert status up one notch from normal to Alpha. It stays on Alpha until after American Airlines Flight 77 hits the Pentagon.
9:01 a.m.: U.S: President GW. Bush later makes the follow- ing statement. "And I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower — the TV was obvi- ously on, and I used to fly myself, and I said, 'There's one terri- ble pilot.' And I said, 'It must have been a horrible accident.' But I was whisked off from there — I didn't have much time to think about it." Bush could not have possibly seen the first plane (American Airlines Flight 11) hit the WTC, because the only video showing this was not shown on television until later in the day. So how could he have possibly seen and said this?
9:02:54 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 impacts the south side of the South Tower of the WTC between the 78th and 84th floors at a speed of over 500 mph. Parts of the plane including an engine leave the building from its north side, to be found on the ground up to six blocks away.
When United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower, "it set up vibrations which were transmitted through the build- ing, through its foundation, and into the ground," says Lerner- Lam. Those vibrations, as indicated by seismographs at La- mont-Doherty and other locations, were the equivalent of a magnitude 0.7 earthquake.
NORAD says that when United Airlines Flight 175 impacts the WTC at 9:02:54, the two F-15s from Otis are still 71 miles
away. This means their average flight speed was only 23.9% of their top speed in trying to intercept United Airlines Flight 175.
Otis is 153 miles from WTC. F-15s have a top speed of 1875+ mph. Minus 71 miles left from 153 miles equals 82 miles covered in the 11 minutes from 8:52 take-off to 9:03. Sixty minutes divided by 11 minutes equals 5.45, times this by the 82 miles covered, equals 447.3 mph; divided by 1875 mph equals 23.9% of their top speed. How could these two F-15s possibly be going less than one quarter of their top speed in try- ing to intercept United Airlines Flight 175? How?
Stand Down.
The following passages are from a BBC article published on August 30, 2002. Two of the pilots patrolling northeast Amer- ica told the program how they struggled to get to New York as fast as possible after the first plane had hit the World Trade Center. Pilots "Duff and "Nasty" recalled they were only min- utes away when the second plane hit the towers. Pilot Duff said:11
"For a long time I wondered what would have happened if we had been scrambled in time. We 've been over the flight a thousand times in our minds and I don 't know what we could have done to get there any quicker. " Perhaps if they flew a little faster than 23.9% of their top speed is how?
"The F-15 pilots flew 'like a scalded ape, ' topping 500 [sic!] mph but were unable to catch up to the airliner [United Airliners Flight 175], Meg. Gen. Paul Weaver said. "ll
Now the only airliner left in the sky with its IFF transponder signal off is American Airlines Flight 77, which has just made a 1 80 degree turn over southern Ohio/northeastern Kentucky and has been heading directly back to Washington D.C. and the Pentagon since 8:59 a.m. Why didn't these two F-15s that were 71 miles from NYC and the WTC immediately redirect to in- tercept the only dangerous airliner now in the sky, American Airlines Flight 77?
These two F-15s had 34 minutes to reach Washington D.C. before American Airlines Flight 77 hits the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. The mission of these two F-15s from the 102nd Fighter Wing of the Otis Air National Guard Base is to protect the skies from Washington D.C. to the north. The F-15 has a top speed of 1875+ mph, so they could have closed the 300 or so miles from their current position to Washington D.C. in just about 11 min- utes. At top speed they could have been at the Pentagon 23 minutes before American Airlines Flight 77 hits it.
Even if they were flying at the same speed NORAD says that they covered in the last 7 1 miles until they reach the WTC (532.5 mph or only 28.4% of top speed), they would have beaten American Airlines Flight 77 to the Pentagon. Why didn't these two F-15s directly fly to intercept the only known airliner still in the sky that is hijacked, and heading directly for the nations capital?
Still, much worse, why didn't these two F-15s, upon reach- ing the WTC at 9:1 1 and now knowing that American Airlines Flight 77 has been heading dead on for Washington D.C. for 12 minutes, finally try to intercept? The WTC is about 250 miles from the Pentagon. They still have 26 minutes to intercept American Airlines Flight 77 before the Pentagon gets hit at
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9:37. All they have to do is to fly only 576.9 mph or 30.8% of their top speed to beat American Airlines Flight 77 to the Pen- tagon. What do we pay these guys to do?
Still, unbelievably worse, these two F-15s could have waited in New York City until 9:26 before heading down to protect Washington D.C. and the Pentagon. By 9:26, American Airlines Flight 77 has now been heading directly back to Wash- ington D.C. for 27 minutes, it is the only airliner in the sky with its transponder signal off, and has been off course for 30 min- utes. If these F-15s were flying at top speed, they could be at the Pentagon in less than 10 minutes. They can leave New York City at 9:26 and still beat American Airlines Flight 77 to the Pentagon by one minute. Why didn't these F-15s leave at any time between 9:03 and 9:26 to intercept American Airlines Flight 77, the only airliner in the sky with its transponder signal off and also off course and heading straight to Washington D.C? Why, NORAD?
Stand Down.
There is a very interesting video of what looks like a possi- ble F-15 streaking by the WTC just as United Airlines Flight 175 impacts the South Tower of the WTC. Why isn't anyone talking about this video?13
9:03 a.m.: Boston air traffic control center halts traffic from its airports to all New York area airspace.
9:05 a.m.: Andrew Card walks up to Bush while he is listen- ing to a Goat Story with 16 second graders in Sandra Kay Daniels's class at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sara- sota, Florida. Card whispers in his ear "A second plane has hit the World Trade Center. America is under attack." Bush (com- mander-in-chief?) keeps listening to this Goat Story with these children for at least 7 minutes, and perhaps as long as 18 min- utes. Why he didn't excuse himself from these children right away and immediately address this national emergency is to- tally illogical and unexplainable.
There is no way this should have happened. What of course should have happened, was as soon as the secret service found out about United Airlines Flight 175 impacting the WTC (now knowing it was a 'terrorist' act), they would have immediately grabbed Bush and brought him to an undisclosed location. There is no way the secret service leaves Bush in a place (Emma E. Booker Elementary School) where everyone knows he is.
Stand Down.
9:05 a.m.: West Virginia flight control notices a new east- bound plane entering their radar with no radio contact and no transponder identification. They are not sure if it is American Airlines Flight 77. Supposedly they wait another 19 minutes before notifying NORAD about it.
Why hasn't NORAD scrambled any fighters to protect Washington D.C. by 9:05? How could they not have? Two air- liners have already hit the WTC. Nine minutes ago the trans- ponder on American Airlines Flight 77 was shut off and it made a 1 80 degree turn and has been heading directly for Washington D.C. for 6 minutes. Perhaps now would be a good time to re- member that New York City and Washington D.C. are far and away the top two cities in the United States that would be tar- geted by terrorists. Why hasn't NORAD scrambled any fighters to protect Washington D.C. by 9:05?
Stand Down.
9:06 a.m.: Order to halt traffic is expanded to include the entire northeast from Washington to Cleveland. FAA's air traf- fic control center outside Washington D.C. notifies all air traf- fic facilities nationwide of the suspected hijacking of American Airlines Flight 1 1 .
9:06 a.m.: The FAA formally notified the military that United Airlines Flight 175 had been hijacked.
9:08 a.m.: FAA orders all aircraft to leave New York area airspace and orders all New York-bound planes nationwide to stay on the ground.
9:10 a.m. to 9:20 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 was hi- jacked.
9:11 a.m.: The two F-15 Eagles from Otis Air National Guard station in Falmouth, Massachusetts, finally make it to NYC and the WTC. So, it takes these two F-15s, which have a top speed of 1875+ mph, 19 minutes to cover the 153 miles from Otis to the WTC. This means their average flight speed from Otis to the WTC was only 483.2 mph or just 25.8% of their top speed. A little math exposes these window dressing fighters for what they are. Thank you NORAD for your Sep- tember 18, 2001, Press Release.
Stand Down.
9:12 a.m.: The FAA formally notified the military that United Airlines Flight 175 had crashed into the WTC.
9:15 a.m.: American Airlines orders no new takeoffs in the United States.
9:16 a.m. to 9:20: The FAA notifies NORAD that United Airlines Flight 93 has been hijacked. (Reported as 9:20 a.m. in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) No fighters are scrambled in spe- cific response, now or later. There is the possibility the fighters sent after American Airlines Flight 77 later headed towards United Airlines Flight 93. NORAD's own timeline inexplicably fails to say when the FAA told them about the hijack. This is the only flight NORAD fails to provide this data for. Why?
Stand Down.
9:17 a.m.: The FAA shuts down all New York City area airports.
9:20 a.m.: United Airlines orders no new takeoffs in the United States.
9:21 a.m.: New York City Port Authority orders all bridges and tunnels in the New York City area closed.
9:22 a.m.: A sonic boom occurs, which was picked up by an earthquake monitor in southern Pennsylvania, 60 miles away from Shanksville.14 This was most likely caused by a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier.
9:23 a.m.: Bush talks privately with Cheney, his National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, and Governor George Pataki of New York. Why does Bush wait from 9:05 (when Card tells him of United Airlines Flight 175 hitting the WTC) until 9:23 to finally call? He still does not give the authority to the fighters to shoot down any hostile airliners. Fighters do not need his OK to intercept — that should have of course happen automatically (but didn't — or it was IGNORAD15] — his orders are only needed to shoot down a commercial airliner. What is he waiting for?
9:24 a.m.: The FAA notifies NORAD that American Air- lines Flight 77 has been hijacked. The FAA lost contact with
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American Airlines Flight 77 when the transponder signal stops at 8:56 a.m. Why does it take 28 minutes for the FAA to tell NORAD that American Airlines Flight 77 has been hijacked? Impossible. Stand Down.
9:24 a.m.: NORAD orders the 1st Fighter Wing from Lang- ley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia to scramble two, pos- sibly three F-16 fighters. This time NORAD does not sit on this vital information for six minutes (or more) before notifying Langley AFB (like they did before they scrambled Otis). Lang- ley is 130 miles south of Washington D.C. and the Pentagon. The F-16 has a top speed of 1500 mph.
Why wasn't Langley AFB scrambled at 8:20 or 8:40 or 8:46:26 or at the very least at 9:02:54? How could NORAD possibly have waited the 21 minutes from the time United Air- lines Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the WTC at 9:02:54 before finally scrambling Langley at 9:24? Waiting these 21 ex- tra minutes to finally scramble Langley is the real smoking gun Stand Down that no one can get around.
Inconceivably, Andrews Air Force Base, with its two fighter wings only about 1 1 miles from the Pentagon, never got off the ground until after everything was over. They must have been told to Stand Down. This Stand Down that happened at An- drews AFB is the same thing that happened with the at least 35 Air Stations that were easily within distance to protect us of all of these hijackings. They were all told to Stand Down.4
9:25 a.m.: Air traffic controllers inform the United States Secret Service that American Airlines Flight 77 is approaching Washington D.C.
9:26 a.m.: The FAA halts takeoffs nationwide. All airborne international flights are told to land in Canada.
9:26 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77-Passenger, Barbara K. Olson again calls her husband, Solicitor General Theodore Olson, at the Justice Department to tell him about the hijacking and to report that the passengers and pilots were held in the back of the plane. Again she is the only person who makes a call from American Airlines Flight 77. Isn't it very strange that is she the only person to call, not once but twice?
9:28 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93: An open microphone aboard reveals someone in the cockpit saying: "Get out of here!"
9:28 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93: "there are the first au- dible signs of problems, in background cockpit noise." Air traf- fic controllers hear the sound of screaming and scuffling over an open mike. They then hear hijackers speaking in Arabic to each other. Yet this is at least 8 minutes and maybe 12 minutes after the hijackers had taken over the cockpit and done some- thing to cause the FAA to notify NORAD of United Airlines Flight 93's hijacking.
9:30 a.m.: Two, possibly three F-16 Fighting Falcons code- named Huntress take off from Langley AFB headed at first to- ward NYC. A couple of minutes into their mission, according to General Haugen "A person came on the radio and identified themselves as being with the Secret Service" and said, "I want you to protect the White House at all costs." The F-16s laid in a new course and vectored to Washington D.C. Since both Wash- ington D.C. and New York City are both north of Langley, and this happened within a couple of minutes of take-off, this was not a factor in why these F-16 fighters were flying so slow.
Why were these fighters headed to NYC when American Airlines Flight 77 has been headed directly for Washington D.C. for the last 31 minutes, and with their communication and transponder turned off for 34 minutes? There are no airliners headed for NYC or anywhere else with their communication and transponders turned off. Also, at 9:25, air traffic controllers have already informed the United States Secret Service in Washington D.C. that American Airlines Flight 77 is approach- ing them very fast. So why are these F-16s first flying toward NYC?
Stand Down.
9:30 a m.: Bush, speaking to the nation from Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, says the coun- try has suffered an "apparent terrorist attack" and "a national tragedy." He would chase down, "those folks who committed this act." Bush also said: "Terrorism against our nation will not stand."16 It was an echo of "This will not stand," the words his father, George H. W. Bush, had used a few days after Iraq in- vaded Kuwait in August 1990 — in Bush's opinion, one of his father's finest moments.
Also, during this address to the country, Bush promised a full investigation into the attack. Well here we are, 16 months later, after everything Bush could possibly do to stop an inves- tigation, and we are finally getting a so-called 911 investiga- tion. That Henry Kissinger and George Mitchell quit as chair and vice chair is very interesting. Of course, having appointed killer Kissinger to lead the 911 investigation in the first place was like saying 'Welcome to the Twilight Zone.' Did Kissinger quit because some of his clients were about to be exposed and tried by him? A little conflict of interest, Henry?
This address to the country should have been said at least 15 to 20 minutes earlier. But of course he had much more impor- tant business to attend to, he was listening to the Goat Story with the 16 second graders from 9:05 until at least 9:12 and possibly as long as 9:23.
9:30 a.m.: United Airlines begins landing all of its flights inside the United States.
9:32 a.m.: Secret Service agents burst into Cheney's White House office. They carry him under his arms — nearly lifting him off the ground — and take him to the security of the under- ground bunker in the White House basement. What took them so long?
9:32 a.m.: The New York Stock Exchange closed.
9:33 a.m.: According to The New York Times, American Airlines Flight 77 was lost at 8:56 when it turned off its trans- ponder and stayed lost until now. Washington air traffic control sees a fast moving blip on their radar at this time and sends a warning to Dulles Airport in Washington. Is it conceivable that an airplane could be lost inside United States air space for 37 minutes?
Stand Down.
9:35 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 goes off course near Cleveland, Ohio, where it makes a 135 degree turn, and is now headed to the southeast. United Airlines Flight 93 is 375 miles from Newark, New Jersey, and 280 miles from where it was now headed, Washington D.C.
Also reported about United Airlines Flight 93: ABC News has learned that shortly before the plane changed directions,
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someone in the cockpit radioed in and asked the FAA for a new flight plan with a final destination of Washington. This should have been a big red flag, a problem aircraft usually diverts to the nearest field. Did the Pilot do this to signal Air Traffic Control?
9:35 a.m.: American Airlines begins landing all of its flights inside the United States.
9:36 a.m.: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in- structs a military CI 30 aircraft that had just departed Andrews Air Force base to try to identify American Airlines Flight 77. The CI 30 reports it is a 767 and it is moving low and very fast.
9:37 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 is lost from radar screens and impacts the western side of the Pentagon. The sec- tion of the Pentagon hit consists mainly of newly renovated, unoccupied offices. The Pentagon says American Airlines Flight 77 hits them at 9:37. Other published reports have American Airlines Flight 77 striking at 9:40 to 9:43; The New York Times even published 9:45.
At 9:37, NORAD says the F-16s from Langley were still 105 miles and 12 minutes away. Incredibly, this means their average flight speed was only 14.3% of their top speed in trying to intercept United Airlines Flight 175 before it hits the Penta- gon. If these F-16s flew at top speed, they would have been there just after 9:37.
Langley is 130 miles from the Pentagon. F-16s have a top speed of 1500 mph. Minus 105 miles left from 130 miles equals 25 miles covered in the 7 minutes from 9:30 take-off to 9:37. 60 minutes divided by 7 minutes equals 8.57, times this by the 25 miles covered, equals 214.3 mph. divided by 1500 mph equals 14.3% of their top speed. How could these two F-16s possibly be going one seventh of their top speed in trying to in- tercept American Airlines Flight 77? Even the story about first flying to NYC does not account for this unbelievably slow speed because they got the message to redirect to Washington D.C. within a couple of minutes of take-off, and NYC and Washington D.C. are almost exactly the same direction (north) from Langley.
Stand Down.
Three more of the 7 air stations on full alert were within range of Washington D.C: Tyndall AFB in Panama City, Flor- ida, is 800 miles from Washington D.C; from the time they scramble and flying at top speed, they could have reached Washington D.C. in 35 to 40 minutes. Homestead ARB in Homestead, Florida, is 1000 miles from Washington D.C; from the time they scramble and flying at top speed, they could have reached Washington D.C. in 45 to 50 minutes. Ellington ANG in Houston, Texas, is 1250 miles from Washington D.C; from the time they scramble and flying at top speed, they could have reached Washington D.C. in 55 to 60 minutes.
Remember at 8:40 the FAA notifies NORAD that American Airlines Flight 11 has been hijacked and at 8:43 a.m. the FAA notifies NORAD that United Airlines Flight 175 has been hi- jacked. So at 8:43 a full 54 minutes before American Airlines Flight 77 hits the Pentagon, NORAD admits to knowing about these two airlines being hijacked. With a 54 minute start — besides of course Otis ANG who were already in the air (at 8:52) and Langley AFB fighters (finally ordered to scramble at 9:24— airborne at 9:30), both Tyndall AFB and Homestead ARB fighters could have beaten American Airlines Flight 77 to
the Pentagon and Ellington ANG fighters had an outside chance. Of course both air stations in Florida, Tyndall AFB, and Homestead ARB, should have been sent to protect Air Force One in Sarasota — but incredibly they weren't sent there either.
At 8:56, the transponder on American Airlines Flight 77 stops sending the IFF beacon. This is 41 minutes before it hits the Pentagon. Again besides of course Otis ANG and Langley AFB fighters, if ordered to scramble at 8:56, Tyndall AFB fighters could have still beaten American Airlines Flight 77 to the Pentagon.
Stand Down.
9:38 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 completes its 135 de- gree turn and is headed directly towards Washington D.C.
9:40 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 transponder signal stops.
9:40 a.m.: Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, summoned by the White House to the bunker, was on an open line to the Federal Aviation Administration operations center, monitoring Flight 77 as it hurtled toward Washington with ra- dar tracks coming every seven seconds. Reports came that the plane was 50 miles out, 30 miles out, 10 miles out — until word reached the bunker that there had been an explosion at the Pen- tagon.
Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order — there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's di- rective to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary.
"Fuck pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those god- damn planes down."
The FAA stops all flight operations at U.S. airports and or- ders all planes in the air to land at the nearest airport. No civil- ian aircraft are allowed to lift off. This is the first time all commercial flights in the U.S. have been suspended. Only mili- tary and medical flights are allowed to fly.
9:42 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Mark Bing- ham calls his mother: "Mom, this is Mark Bingham," he said, nervously. "I want to let you know that I love you. I'm calling from the plane. We've been taken over. There are three men that say they have a bomb."
9:45 a.m.: Bush's motorcade leaves the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, headed for Air Force One at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
9:45 a.m. to 9:48 a.m.: The Capitol and the White House are evacuated.
9:47 a.m.: Commanders worldwide were ordered to raise their threat alert status four notches to "Delta", the highest level to defend United States facilities. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld raised the defense condition signaling of the United States offensive readiness to DefCon 3, the highest it had been since the Arab-Israeli war in 1973. United States officials also sent a message to the Russians, who were planning a military exercise not far from Alaska, urging them to rethink their plans.
9:49 a.m.: The F-16s from Langley AFB finally arrive over Washington D.C. to perform Combat Air Patrol over the city. It
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takes these F-16s 19 minutes to reach Washington D.C. from Langley AFB which is about 130 miles to the south.
If these F-16s were flying at top speed it should have taken them just over 7 minutes to reach the Pentagon. They should have been there at about the same time the Pentagon is hit by American Airlines Flight 77, at 9:37.
By arriving in Washington D.C. at 9:49, that would mean these F-16s average flight speed was only 410.5 mph. This means their average flight speed was only 27.4% of their top speed in trying to protect our nation's capital. Langley AFB is 130 miles from the Pentagon and F-16s have a top speed of 1500 mph. 60 minutes divided by 19 minutes = 3.16 x 130 miles = 410.5 mph divided by 1500 mph = 27.4%.
These F-16s took-off at 9:30, this is 43 minutes after American Airlines 1 1 impacts the North Tower of the WTC and 27 minutes after United Airlines Flight 175 slams into the South Tower of the WTC. Knowing this, these F-16s fly at only 14.3% (overall 27.4%) of their top speed in trying to intercept American Airlines Flight 77 and protect our nations capital, Washington D.C. How could that possibly be?
Why were all of these ultra-sophisticated fighter jets averag- ing flight speeds only one quarter of their top speed when sent to intercept hostile aircraft and protect New York City and our nation's Capital, Washington D.C? What exactly is the purpose of these fighter jets being able to go 1875+ mph and 1500 mph, yet when the United States is being attacked and needs them the most they are only somehow capable of doing one quarter of their top speed?
Stand Down.
The United States Air Force is the most technologically ad- vanced and the most dominant military force ever known to man, and yet we didn't have any other fighters on routine pa- trols or training missions anywhere within 1000 miles of New York City or Washington D. C. that morning? I have talked to a few people in the Air Force, and this is totally impossible. There are always fighters up on routine patrols or training mis- sions. So where were they?
And lastly, why didn't the Air Force follow procedure and immediately scramble to monitor any of these 4 flights like they did for the late great golfer Payne Stewart when his Lear Jet went off course? This is not Oshkosh, Wisconsin, we are talking about protecting here, it is New York City and the Capi- tal of the United States, Washington D.C, and its air defenses were left totally unguarded for one hour and twenty-three min- utes (from 8:14 to 9:37) (or one hour and thirty-five minutes — F-15 arrived in DC at 9:49) by the same country which has the greatest air superiority by far ever known. What type of a pre- posterous wag of the NORAD tale is this?
Both of these groups of fighters, the F-15s out of Otis and the F-16s out of Langley, were put in the air merely as window dressing. To make the public actually think they were valiantly trying to intercept these 4 hijacked planes. There is only one explanation for this — our Air Force was ordered to Stand Down on 911.
9:55 a.m.: Bush arrives at the Sarasota-Bradenton Interna- tional Airport and boards Air Force One.17
9:55 a.m.: Inside his White House bunker, a military aide asks Cheney: "There is a plane 80 miles out. There is a fighter in
the area. Should we engage?" Cheney immediately says, "Yes." As the fighter gets nearer to United Airlines Flight 93, he is asked the same thing twice more, and responds yes both times.
9:58 a.m.: Confrontation with the hijackers and the passen- gers begins aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Emergency dis- patcher in Pennsylvania receives a call from a passenger on Flight 93. The passenger says: "We are being hijacked!"
9:58 a.m.: A frantic male passenger onboard United Airlines Flight 93 called the 91 1 emergency number, he told the opera- tor, named Glen Cramer, that he had locked himself inside one of the toilets. Cramer told the AP, in a report that was widely broadcast on September 1 1th, that the passenger had spoken for one minute. "We're being hijacked, we're being hijacked!" the man screamed into his mobile phone. "We confirmed that with him several times," Cramer said, "and we asked him to repeat what he said. He was very distraught. He said he believed the plane was going down. He did hear some sort of an explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane, but he didn't know where. And then we lost contact with him." This was the last cell phone call made from any passenger on any of the hi- jacked planes.
9:59 a.m.: Air Force One Departs Sarasota-Bradenton Inter- national Airport, Sarasota, Florida, bound for Washington D.C. Air Force One departed with no extra military protection. This is totally impossible. Two of the 7 military air stations we had on full alert to protect the continental United States that day were based in Florida. Homestead Air Reserve Base in Home- stead is 185 miles and the Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City is 235 miles from Sarasota and Air Force One.
These two air stations should have been ordered to scramble their fighters at 8:20 or 8:40 or 8:43 or 8:46:26 or 9:02:54 or 9:24 or at the very least at 9:37. From the time these two Air stations should have been scrambled and flying at top speed, both of these air stations fighters could have been in Sarasota within 16 to 18 minutes to protect Air Force One. Even if both Air stations waited on the ground with their 4 fighters until the Pentagon gets hit at 9:37, all 4 fighters could have scrambled and been at Sarasota 4 to 6 minutes before Air Force One takes- off at 9:59. Where were the fighters from both of these air sta- tions? Did both of these air stations have something better to do that day than protect Air Force One? Please, this just does not happen. Why is no one else in the world asking this question?
Stand Down.
Also, is the place to be in the air when there are still a cou- ple of thousand airliners in the air deviating from their normal flight plans to land, and who knew then how many of them were hostile or not?
Also, please take a look at the August 30, 2002, BBC article which states:18
"In the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks US fighter planes took to the skies to defend America from any further attacks. Their mission was to protect President George W. Bush and to intercept any hijacked aircraft heading to other targets in the US. "
9:59:04 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center suddenly collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A mas- sive cloud of dust and debris quickly fills lower Manhattan. It is later explained that the collapse was not directly caused by the
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impact, but the intense heat caused by the fire fueled by the jet's fuel weakening the steel support beams of the concrete floors. The WTC towers were built to withstand a 707 being flown into them. A 767 carries almost the same amount of fuel asa707.19
10:00 a.m.: Bill Wright is flying a small plane when an air traffic controller asks him to look around outside his window. He sees United Airlines Flight 93 three miles away - close enough to see the United Airlines colors. Air traffic control asks him the plane's altitude, and then commands him to get away from the plane and land immediately. Wright saw the plan rock back and forth three or four times before he flew from the area. He speculates that the hijackers were trying to throw off the attacking passengers.
10:00 a.m.: The NRC tells all nuclear power stations to go to the highest level of alert.
10:01 a.m.: The FAA orders F-16 fighters to scramble from Toledo, Ohio. Although the base has no fighters on stand-by alert status, it manages to put fighters in the air 16 minutes later, a "phenomenal" response time — but still 1 1 minutes after the last hijacked plane has crashed.
One interesting aspect is that NORAD has explained that it didn't scramble fighters from bases nearer to the hijacked planes because they only used bases in the NORAD defensive network (seven bases were on fully armed alert covering the continental United States). Yet this Toledo base wasn't part of that network, so why weren't planes in this base and other bases scrambled an hour or more earlier? Could it be that they were scrambled earlier, and that it was one of these F-16s that tailed Flight 93? While it hasn't been reported in the media yet, note this recent claim by a seismologist that there was a sonic boom in Western Pennsylvania at 9:22. Could that have been a fighter tracking United Airlines Flight 93?
10:02 a.m.: After a review of radar tapes, a radar signal of United Airlines Flight 93 is detected near Shanksville, Pennsyl- vania.
10:03 a.m.: According to the FBI, the cockpit voice recorder stops and United Airlines Flight 93 crashes near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in Somerset county, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
10:04 a.m.: Johnstown-Cambria County Airport reports United Airlines Flight 93 is 15 miles south.
10:06:05 a.m.: According to seismic data, United Airlines Flight 93 crashes near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in Somerset county, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. This is also 124 miles or 15 minutes away at 500 mph from Washington D.C. An eyewitness reports seeing a white plane resembling a fighter jet circling the site just after the crash.
The F-16s from Langley AFB arrived in Washington D.C at 9:49 a.m. The F-16 has a top speed of 1500 mph. After the Pen- tagon gets hit by American Airlines Flight 77 at 9:37, there is only one airliner left in the sky with its transponder signal off, and once again heading directly for Washington D.C, and that is United Airlines Flight 93. Flying at top speed these F-16s could have intercepted United Airlines Flight 93 within 5 to 8 minutes depending on when they would have left. Why didn't these F-16s try to intercept United Airlines Flight 93? How could they not go after the only threat in the sky yet once again?
Stand Down.
Listen to what a former Pentagon air traffic controller say:
"All those years ago when I was at the Pentagon, this wouldn 't have happened. ATC Radar images were (and are) available in the understructures of the Pentagon, and any commercial flight within 300 miles of Washington D. C. that made an abrupt course change toward Washington D. C. or turned off their transponder and refused to communicate with ATC would have been intercepted at supersonic speeds within minutes by fighters out of Andrews AFB. Why there were no fighters from Andrews up baffles me. If we could get fighters notified, scrambled, and airborne within about 6 minutes from Andrews AFB then, we could now. " Shortly after 9 1 1 , a flight controller in New Hampshire ig- nores a ban on air traffic controllers speaking to the media, and it is reported he claims "that an F-16 fighter closely pursued United Airlines Flight 93... the F-16 made 360-degree turns to remain close to the commercial jet, the controller said. 'He must've seen the whole thing,' the controller said of the F-16 pilot's view of Flight 93 's crash."
What happened to our first amendment? Where are all of the free and open debates in the United States questioning Sep- tember 1 1th? I, Mark Elsis, will debate anyone or any panel on this issue. Does any formidable opponent dare to debate me about what really happened on September 1 1, 2001?
© January 8, 2003
Notes
1 See www.norad.mil/newsreleases/news_rel_09_18_01.htm; see also the AP article on the NORAD press release: www.attackonamerica.net/8minutesaway.htm
2 See www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm.
3 See www.af.mil/news/airman/1299/home2.htm.
4 The following website lists the 7 bases on full alert and the 28 that were within range: www.StandDown.net/USAFbases.htm.
5 See www.standdown.net/FAAStandardInterceptProcedures.htm.
6 Many sources for Stand Down are from the 600 articles on www.AttackOnAmerica.net; for audios, photographs and videos of Septem- ber 1 1 , 200 1 , see www. 9 1 1 200 1 .net. For the most comprehensive timeline on 9/11, see www.91 ltimeline.net/.
7 Go to www.attackonamerica.net/, click on "Evidence;" scroll down until you see: AA1 1 Passenger List, UA 175 Passenger List, AA 77 Passenger List and UA 93 Passenger List. Click on any of these four links and count the number of passengers listed for yourself.
8 Boeing 767 Seating Charts: www.boeing.com/commercial/767family/pf/pf_seating_charts.html Boeing 757 Seating Charts:
www.boeing.com/commercial/757family/pf/pf_seating_charts.html.
9 www.standdown.net/FAAStandardInterceptProcedures.htm
10 See "Jet [757 / 767] Could Wreck TMI [Three Mile Island], NCR [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] Admits,"
www.AttackOnAmerica.net/JetCouldWreckNuclearNRCAdmits.htm.
11 "US Considered 'Suicide Jet Missions'," news.bbc.co.uk/l/hi/world/americas/2222205.stm
12 "National Guard Fighters Raced After 2 Airliners," www.staugustine.com/stories/09 1 60 l/ter_09 1 60 1 0027.shtml
13 www.MyCountryRightOrWrong.net/F- 1 5 .htm
14 www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30682
15 www.attackonamerica.net/ignorad.htm
16 http://www.AttackOnAmerica.net/BushAtEmmaEBookerSchool.mov.
17 We have captured and saved the video of Bush as he arrives at Sarasota- Bradenton International Airport, and the take-off of Air Force One. Go to: www.AttackOnAmerica.net/AirForceOneLeavingSarasota.ra
18 news.bbc.co.uk/l/hi/world/americas/2222205.stm
19 See www.fema.gov/library/wtcstudy.shtm for a detailed forensic study of the WTC tower collapses.
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Disturbing Facts about 9/11 and the U.S. Government
The Bush administration ignored the issue of terrorism from the moment it assumed office:
- They ignored the final report of the Hart-Rudman commission, the Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change, that was issued on January 31, 2001 (www.cjr.org/year/01/6/evans.asp)
- They blocked Senate hearings on the Hart-Rudman commission's report, scheduled for the week of May 7, 2001, by an- nouncing a brand new commission led by Vice President Dick Cheney - which never met before 911
(www . cj r. org/y ear/ 01/6/evans.asp)
- They ignored repeated requests from the Hart-Rudman commission from January 2001 to September 6, 2001, when Na- tional Security adviser Condoleezza Rice said she would "pass on" their concerns (www.cjr.org/year/01/6/evans.asp)
- They ignored repeated requests from Senator Dianne Feinstein to restructure US counter-terrorism and homeland defense programs, starting in July 2001 and continuing through September 10, 2001, when Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff told Feinstein to wait 6 months (www.senate.gov/~feinstein/Releases02/attacks.htm)
- They ignored the report of the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety and Security (www.fas.org/irp/threat/212fin~l.html) The Bush administration changed Bill Clinton's policy towards Afghanistan to appease Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their Saudi backers to promote the interests of oil companies, putting profits for campaign contributors ahead of fighting terror- ism:
- They prevented FBI terrorism experts from investigating Saudi Arabian ties to Al Qaeda before 911, leading to the resig- nation of FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill only two weeks before 91 1 (democrats.com/view.cfm?id=7352)
- They ordered the Naval Strike Force - which President Clinton deployed near Afghanistan on 24-hour alert in order to strike Osama Bin Laden - to "stand down" before 911 (democrats. com/view.cfm?id=5714)
- They gave $43 million to the Taliban in April 2001 (www.robertscheer.com/l_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm) When appeasement failed, the Bush administration then prepared for war against Afghanistan:
- They issued an ultimatum to the Taliban in July 2001, telling them to turn over Osama Bin Laden and permit Unocal to build a pipeline across Afghanistan in return for a "carpet of gold" - or face a "carpet of bombs" (http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5 1 66)
- They prepared a National Security Presidential Directive on September 9, 2001, a detailed "game plan to remove al-Qaida from the face of the Earth" (http://www.msnbc.com/news/753359. asp?cpl=l)
The Bush administration ignored numerous warnings from US and foreign agencies:
- They ignored warnings as early as June from the National Security Agency's Echelon electronic spy network that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture (http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170072.html)
- They ignored warnings from an FBI agent in Phoenix on July 10, 2001 about suspicious Arab pilots with ties to Al Qaeda who were training in a local flight school, urging a nationwide investigation of Arab students in flight schools (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30 1 76-2002May 1 6.html)
- Bush personally ignored warnings from the CIA on August 6, 2001 that Al Qaeda planned to hijack US planes (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35744-2002Mayl7.html)
- They ignored warnings from Jordanian intelligence in the summer that a major attack was planned inside the US using airplanes (http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=58269)
- They ignored warnings from Israeli intelligence in August that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent, organized by a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation (http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/200 1/09/1 6/wcial6.xml)
- They ignored warnings from Russian intelligence in August that at least 25 terrorist were trained in Afghanistan and Paki- stan to attack US targets, with future plans to attack financial, nuclear, and space facilities (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/izvestia_story_pic.html)
- They ignored warnings from Moroccan intelligence in August that Bin Laden was "very disappointed" by the failure of the 1993 WTC bombing, and planned "large-scale operations in New York in the summer or autumn of 2001" (http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=58269)
- They ignored warnings from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on August 31 of an impending attack on the US (http://globalresearch.ca/articles/LEBl 12A.html)
- They ignored phone calls from Abu Zubaida, bin Laden' s chief of operations, to the United States that were intercepted by the National Security Agency shortly before 911
(http ://abcnews . go. com/ sections/wnt/DailyNews/wnt_missedsignals_ 1 _0202 1 8 .html)
- They ignored an extraordinary number of "puts" on the stocks which were hardest hit by the 91 1 attacks, including American and United airlines, in the days leading up to 91 1
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Disturbing Facts about 9/11 and the U.S. Government
(http://news. independent, co.uk/business/news/story .jsp?story=99402) The Bush administration failed to take meaningful precautions against a terrorist attack when so many warnings were being issued:
- They allowed counterterrorism agencies to "stand down" from the highest level of alert before August 6, 2001, despite repeated warnings from CIA director George Tenet (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30176- 2002Mayl6.html)
On 91 1, Bush failed to take decisive action:
- George W. Bush said on two occasions that he saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on 91 1, and was told by Andrew Card about the second plane hitting the World Trade Center at 9:05 a.m. - yet Bush did nothing but listen to a children's story until 9:30 a.m. instead of ordering fighter jets to intercept all hijacked planes immediately (http://democrats. com/view. cfm?id=6061)
- George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ordered the Pentagon to shoot down Flight 93 over Pennsylvania at 9:55 a.m., but could have shot down the other three flights if they had not waited so long to act (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26)
- Following 911, Bush used the tragedy to promote the agenda of his wealthy and powerful supporters:
- Bush pushed through the USA Patriot Act, which rewarded right-wing opponents of freedom and civil liberties
- Bush demanded additional tax cuts for the wealthy using the pretense of "stimulating" the economy
- Bush massively increased defense spending, to the direct personal benefit of his father and his cronies in the Carlyle Group
To cover up his failures, the Bush administration resorted to stonewalling, fmgerpointing, and lies about 911: They have continually lied about the extent of the warnings about the 911 attack
- Shortly after 911, Ari Fleischer declared flatly that there were "no warnings"
- When it was revealed in May 2002 that the CIA briefed Bush personally on August 6, 2001, they claimed that the briefing did not address terrorist attacks in the US; then they claimed it was a "low-level" briefing based on only one warning
Condoleezza Rice said, "I don 't think anyone could have predicted that these people... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile. " (5/16/02)
- The Pentagon commissioned a study in 1993 called "Terrorism 2000", which predicted multiple simultaneous attacks, the use of airplanes as weapons, targeting of large landmarks and financial centers, etc. (http://www.infowar.com/class_3/class3_081398a_j.shtml)
- A Fedex employee tried to crash a DC- 10 into FedEx HQ in Memphis in 1994, but was apprehended
- An Islamic fundamentalist group hijacked an Air France flight and loaded it with 27 tons of fuel to destroy the Eiffel Tower, but special forces stormed the plane on the ground
- Abdul Hakim Murad and Ramsey Yousef conceived of 'Project Bojinka' in 1995, a plan to blow up 1 1 US airline flights over the Pacific in 1995, and to crash airplanes into the Pentagon and the CIA, which definitely caught the attention of counter-terrorism experts in the US (http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq36.html#_Toc9410681)
- The Library of Congress Report on The Sociology And Psychology Of Terrorism warned in 1999 about suicide hijackers (http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Sociology-Psychology of Terrorism.htm)
- The Pentagon conducted a drill in December 2000 to respond to an airline crashing into the Pentagon (http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Contingency_Planning.html)
- U.S. and Italian officials were warned in July 2001 that Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill President Bush and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-092701genoa.story)
They did everything possible to block an independent commission investigation
- Bush and Cheney personally called Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle urging him not to conduct an investigation (http://www.cnn.eom/2002/ALLPOLITICS/0 1/29/inv.terror.probe/)
- When pressure for an independent commission became too strong, they suddenly announced warnings of another attack - although they did not raise the official alert level above yellow, leading to widespread speculation of a deliberately false alarm to stop the momentum
- When the Independent Commission finally began its work, Bush used Nixon's dictatorial doctrine of "Executive Privi- lege" to deny commissioners access to crucial documents (http://www.msnbc.eom/m/pt/printthis. asp?storyID=9 10676)
George W. Bush himself has repeatedly JOKED about the 911 attack:
- "Lucky me. I hit the trifecta," George W. Bush, shortly after 9/1 1 — quoted by Bush Budget Director Mitch Daniels, 11/28/01
Taken from a supporter website of the Democrats, http://democrats.com/elandslide/petition.cfm7campaigF91 1
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The War on Iraq: Conceived in Israel
By Stephen J. Sniegoski
In a lengthy article in The American Conservative criticiz- ing the rationale for the projected U.S. attack on Iraq, the vet- eran diplomatic historian Paul W. Schroeder noted (only in passing) "what is possibly the unacknowledged real reason and motive behind the policy — security for Israel." If Israel's secu- rity were indeed the real American motive for war, Schroeder wrote:1
"It would represent something to my knowledge unique in history. It is common for great powers to try to fight wars by proxy, getting smaller powers to fight for their interests. This would be the first instance I know where a great power (in fact, a superpower) would do the fighting as the proxy of a small client state. "
Is there any evidence that Israel and her supporters have managed to get the United States to fight for their interests?
To unearth the real motives for the projected war on Iraq, one must ask the critical question: How did the 9/1 1 terrorist at- tack lead to the planned war on Iraq, even though there is no real evidence that Iraq was involved in 9/1 1 ? From the time of the 9/11 attack, neoconservatives, of primarily (though not ex- clusively) Jewish ethnicity and right-wing Zionist persuasion, have tried to make use of 9/1 1 to foment a broad war against Is- lamic terrorism, the targets of which would coincide with the enemies of Israel.
Although the term neoconservative is in common usage, a brief description of the group might be helpful. Many of the first-generation neocons originally were liberal Democrats, or even socialists and Marxists, often Trotskyites. They drifted to the right in the 1960s and 1970s as the Democratic Party moved to the antiwar McGovernite left. And concern for Israel loomed large in that rightward drift. As political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg puts it:2
"One major factor that drew them inexorably to the right was their attachment to Israel and their growing frustration during the 1960s with a Democratic party that was becoming increasingly opposed to American military preparedness and increasingly enamored of Third World causes (e.g., Palestinian rights]. In the Reaganite right's hard-line anti-communism, commitment to American military strength, and willingness to intervene politically and militarily in the affairs of other nations to promote democratic values (and American interests), neocons found a political movement that would guarantee Israel 's security? "
For some time prior to September 11, 2001, neoconserva- tives had publicly advocated an American war on Iraq. The 9/11 atrocities provided the pretext. The idea that neocons are the motivating force behind the U.S. movement for war has been broached by a number of commentators. For instance, Joshua Micah Marshall authored an article in The Washington Monthly titled: "Bomb Saddam?: How the obsession of a few neocon hawks became the central goal of U.S. foreign policy." And in the leftist e-journal CounterPunch, Kathleen and war on Iraq. Bill Christison wrote:3
"The suggestion that the war with Iraq is being planned at Israel's behest, or at the instigation of policymakers whose main motivation is trying to create a secure envi- ronment for Israel, is strong. Many Israeli analysts believe this. The Israeli commentator Akiva Eldar recently observed frankly in a Ha 'aretz column that [Richard] Perle, [Doug- las] Feith, and their fellow strategists 'are walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments and Is- raeli interests. ' The suggestion of dual loyalties is not a verboten subject in the Israeli press, as it is in the United States. Peace activist Uri Avnery, who knows Israeli Prime Minister Sharon well, has written that Sharon has long planned grandiose schemes for restructuring the Middle East and that 'the winds blowing now in Washington re- mind me of Sharon. I have absolutely no proof that the Bushies got their ideas from him. But the style is the same.
In the following essay I attempt to flesh out that thesis and show the link between the war position of the neoconservatives and the long-time strategy of the Israeli Right, if not of the Is- raeli mainstream itself. In brief, the idea of a Middle East war has been bandied about in Israel for many years as a means of enhancing Israeli security, which revolves around an ultimate solution to the Palestinian problem.
War and Expulsion
To understand why Israeli leaders would want a Middle East war, it is first necessary to take a brief look at the history of the Zionist movement and its goals. Despite public rhetoric to the contrary, the idea of expelling (or, in the accepted euphemism, "transferring") the indigenous Palestinian popula- tion was an integral part of the Zionist effort to found a Jewish national state in Palestine. Historian Tom Segev writes:
"The idea of transfer had accompanied the Zionist movement from its very beginnings, first appearing in Theodore Herzl 's diary. In practice, the Zionists began exe- cuting a mini-transfer from the time they began purchasing the land and evacuating the Arab tenants.... "Disappear- ing" the Arabs lay at the heart of the Zionist dream, and was also a necessary condition of its existence.... With few exceptions, none of the Zionists disputed the desirability of forced transfer — or its morality.
However, Segev continues, the Zionist leaders learned not to publicly proclaim their plan of mass expulsion because "this would cause the Zionists to lose the world's sympathy."4
The key was to find an opportune time to initiate the expul- sion so it would not incur the world's condemnation. In the late 1930s, David Ben-Gurion wrote: "What is inconceivable in normal times is possible in revolutionary times; and if at this time the opportunity is missed and what is possible in such great hours is not carried out — a whole world is lost."5 The "revolutionary times" would come with the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, when the Zionists were able to expel 750,000 Pal- estinians (more than 80 percent of the indigenous population),
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and thus achieve an overwhelmingly Jewish state, though its area did not include the entirety of Palestine, or the "Land of Is- rael," which Zionist leaders thought necessary for a viable state.
The opportunity to grab additional land occurred as a result of the 1967 war; however, that occupation brought with it the problem of a large Palestinian population. By that time world opinion was totally opposed to forced population transfers, the idea of expulsion resurfaced equating such a policy with the unspeakable horror of Nazism. The landmark Fourth Geneva Convention, ratified in 1949, had "unequivocally prohibited deportation" of civilians under occupation.5 Since the 1967 war, the major question in Israeli politics has been: What to do with that territory and its Palestinian population?
It was during the 1980s, with the coming to power of the right-wing Likud government, that the idea of expulsion resur- faced publicly. And this time it was directly tied to a larger war, with destabilization of the Middle East seen as a precondition for Palestinian expulsion. Such a proposal, including removal of the Palestinian population, was outlined in an article by Oded Yinon, titled "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s," appear- ing in the World Zionist Organization's periodical Kivunim in February 1982. Yinon had been attached to the Israeli Foreign Ministry and his article undoubtedly reflected high-level think- ing in the Israeli military and intelligence establishment. The article called for Israel to bring about the dissolution and frag- mentation of the Arab states into a mosaic of ethnic groupings. Thinking along those lines, Ariel Sharon stated on March 24, 1988, that if the Palestinian uprising continued, Israel would have to make war on her Arab neighbors. The war, he stated, would provide "the circumstances" for the removal of the entire Palestinian population from the West Bank and Gaza and even from inside Israel proper.6
Israeli foreign policy expert Yehoshafat Harkabi critiqued the war/expulsion scenario — referring to "Israeli intentions to impose a Pax Israelica on the Middle East, to dominate the Arab countries and treat them harshly" — in his very significant work, Israel's Fateful Hour, published in 1988. Writing from a realist perspective, Harkabi concluded that Israel did not have the power to achieve that goal, given the strength of the Arab states, the large Palestinian population involved, and the vehe- ment opposition of world opinion. He hoped that "the failed Is- raeli attempt to impose a new order in the weakest Arab state — Lebanon — will disabuse people of similar ambitions in other territories."7 Left unconsidered by Harkabi was the possibility that the United States would act as Israel's proxy to achieve the overall goal.
U.S. Realpolitik
In the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. Middle Eastern policy, although sympathetic to Israel, was not identical to that of Israel. The fun- damental goal of U.S. policy was to promote stable governments in the Middle East that would allow oil to flow reliably to the Western industrial nations. It was not necessary for the Muslim countries to befriend Israel — in fact they could openly oppose the Jewish state. The United States worked for peace between Israel and the Muslim states in the region, but it was to be a peace that would accommodate the demands of the Muslim nations — most crucially their demands involving the Palestinians.
Pursuing its policy of ensuring the security of Middle East oil supplies, by the mid 1980s Washington was heavily sup- porting Iraq in her war against Iran, although for a while the United States had also provided some aid to Iran (viz. the Iran- contra scandal). Ironically, Donald Rumsfeld was the U.S. en- voy who in 1983 paved the way for the restoration of relations with Iraq, relations which had been severed in 1967. The United States along with other.
Western nations looked upon Iraq as a bulwark against the radical Islamism of the Ayatollah's Iran, which threatened Western oil interests. U.S. support for Iraq included intelligence information, military equipment, and agricultural credits. And the United States deployed the largest naval force since the Vietnam War in the Persian Gulf. Ostensibly sent for the pur- pose of protecting oil tankers, it ended up engaging in serious attacks on Iran's navy.
It was during this period of U.S. support that Iraq used poi- son gas against the Iranians and the Kurds, a tactic that the U.S. government and its media supporters now describe as so hor- rendous. In fact, U.S. intelligence facilitated the Iraqi use of gas against the Iranians. In addition, Washington eased up on its own technology export restrictions to Iraq, which allowed the Iraqis to import supercomputers, machine tools, poisonous chemicals, and even strains of anthrax and bubonic plague. In short, the United States helped arm Iraq with the very weaponry of horror that administration officials are now trumpeting as justification for forcibly removing Saddam from power.8
When the Iran/Iraq war ended in 1988, the United States continued its support for Iraq, showering her with military hardware, advanced technology, and agricultural credits. The United States apparently looked to Saddam to maintain stability in the Gulf. But American policy swiftly changed when Iraq in- vaded Kuwait in August 1990. Neoconservatives were hawkish in generating support for a U.S. war against Iraq. The Commit- tee for Peace and Security in the Gulf, headed by Richard Perle, was set up to promote the war.9 And neoconservative war hawks such as Perle, Frank Gaffney, Jr., A.M. Rosenthal, Wil- liam Safire, and The Wall Street Journal held that America's war objective should be not simply to drive Iraq out of Iran but also to destroy Iraq's military potential, especially her capacity to develop nuclear weapons. The first Bush administration em- braced that position.10
But beyond that, the neocons hoped that the war would lead to the removal of Saddam Hussein and the American occupa- tion of Iraq. However, despite the urgings of then-Defense Sec- retary Richard Cheney and Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, the full conquest of Iraq was never accomplished because of the opposition of General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and General Norman Schwarzkopf, the field commander.11 Moreover, the United States had a UN mandate only to liberate Kuwait, not to remove Saddam. To attempt the latter would have caused the U.S. -led coalition to fall apart. America's coalition partners in the region, especially Turkey and Saudi Arabia, feared that the elimination of Saddam's gov- ernment would cause Iraq to fragment into warring ethnic and religious groups. That could have involved a Kurdish rebellion in Iraq that would have spread to Turkey's own restive Kurdish population. Furthermore, Iraq's Shiites might have fallen under
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the influence of Iran, increasing the threat of Islamic radicalism in the region.
Not only did the Bush administration dash neoconservative hopes by leaving Saddam in place, but its proposed "New World Order," as implemented by Secretary of State James Baker, conflicted with neoconservative/Israeli goals, being ori- ented toward placating the Arab coalition that supported the war. That entailed an effort to curb Israeli control of her occu- pied territories. The Bush administration demanded that Israel halt the construction of new settlements in the occupied territo- ries as a condition for receiving $10 billion in U.S. loan guaran- tees for Israel's resettlement of hundreds of thousands of immi- grants from the former Soviet Union. Although Bush would cave in to American pro-Zionist pressure just prior to the No- vember 1992 election, his resistance disaffected many neocons, causing some, such as Safire, to back Bill Clinton in the 1992 election.12
The Network
During the Clinton administration, neoconservatives pro- moted their views from a strong interlocking network of think tanks — the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), Hudson Institute, Washing- ton Institute for Near East Policy, Middle East Forum, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Center for Se- curity Policy (CSP) — which have had great influence in the media and which have helped to staff Republican administra- tions. Some of the organizations were originally set up by mainline conservatives and only later taken over by neoconser- vatives;13 others were established by neocons, with some of the groups having a direct Israeli connection. For example, Colonel Yigal Carmon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence, was a co-founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri). And the various organizations have been closely in- terconnected. For example, the other co-founder of Memri, Meyrav Wurmser, was a member of the Hudson Institute, while her husband, David Wurmser, headed the Middle East studies department of AEI. And Pede was both a "resident fellow" at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a trustee of the Hudson Institute.14
In a recent article in the The Nation, Jason Vest discusses the immense influence in the current Bush administration of people from two major neocon research organizations, JINSA and CSP. Vest details the close links among the two organiza- tions, right-wing politicians, arms merchants, military men, Jewish billionaires, and Republican administrations. Regarding JINSA, Vest writes:15
"Founded in 1976 by neoconservatives concerned that the United States might not be able to provide Israel with adequate military supplies in the event of another Arab- Israeli war, over the past twenty-five years JINSA has gone from a loose-knit proto-group to a $1 A-million-a-year op- eration with a formidable array of Washington power play- ers on its rolls. Until the beginning of the current Bush ad- ministration, JINSA 's board of advisors included such heavy hitters as Cheney, John Bolton (now Under Secretary of State for Arms Control) and Douglas J. Feith, the third- highest-ranking executive in the Pentagon. Both Pede and
former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey, two of the loudest voices in the attack-Iraq chorus, are still on the board, as are such Reagan-era relics as Jeane Kirk- patrick, Eugene Rostow, and [Michael] Ledeen — Oliver North 's Iran/contra liaison with the Israelis. " Vest notes that "dozens" of JLNSA and CSP "members have ascended to powerful government posts, where their advocacy in support of the same agenda continues, abetted by the out-of- government adjuncts from which they came. Industrious and persistent, they've managed to weave a number of issues — support for national missile defense, opposition to arms control treaties, championing of wasteful weapons systems, arms aid to Turkey and American unilateralism in general — into a hard line, with support for the Israeli right at its core." And Vest continues:15
"On no issue is the JINSA/CSP hard line more evident than in its relentless campaign for war — not just with Iraq, but total war, ' as Michael Ledeen, one of the most influen- tial JINSAns in Washington, put it last year. For this crew, 'regime change' by any means necessary in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an ur- gent imperative. "
Let's recapitulate Vest's major points. The JINSA/CSP network has "support for the Israeli right at its core." In line with the views of the Israeli right, it has advocated a Middle Eastern war to eliminate the enemies of Israel. And members of the jrNSA/CSP network have gained influential foreign policy positions in Republican administrations, most especially in the current administration of George W. Bush.
"Securing the Realm"
A clear illustration of the neoconservative thinking on war on Iraq is a 1996 paper developed by Perle, Feith, David Wurmser, and others published by an Israeli think tank, the In- stitute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, titled "A clean break: a new strategy for securing the realm." It was in- tended as a political blueprint for the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The paper stated that Netanyahu should "make a clean break" with the Oslo peace process and reassert Israel's claim to the West Bank and Gaza. It presented a plan whereby Israel would "shape its strategic environment," begin- ning with the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a Hashemite monarchy in Baghdad, to serve as a first step toward eliminating the anti-Israeli governments of Syria, Leba- non, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.16
Note that these Americans — Perle, Feith, and Wurmser — were advising a foreign government and that they currently are connected to the George W. Bush administration: Perle is head of the Defense Policy Board; Feith is Assistant Secretary of De- fense for Policy; and Wurmser is special assistant to State De- partment chief arms control negotiator John Bolton. It is also remarkable that while in 1996 Israel was to "shape its strategic environment" by removing her enemies, the same individuals are now proposing that the United States shape the Middle East envi- ronment by removing Israel's enemies. That is to say, the United States is to serve as Israel's proxy to advance Israeli interests.
On February 19, 1998, in an "Open Letter to the President," the neoconservative Committee for Peace and Security in the
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Gulf proposed "a comprehensive political and military strategy for bringing down Saddam and his regime." The letter contin- ued:
"It will not be easy — and the course of action we favor is not without its problems and perils. But we believe the vi- tal national interests of our country require the United States to [adopt such a strategy]. "
Among the letter's signers were the following current Bush administration officials: Elliott Abrams (National Security Council), Richard Armitage (State Department), Bolton (State Department), Feith (Defense Department), Fred We (Defense Policy Board), Zalmay Khalilzad (White House), Peter Rodman (Defense Department), Wolfowitz (Defense Department), David Wurmser (State Department), Dov Zakheim (Defense Department), Perle (Defense Policy Board), and Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense).17 In 1998 Donald Rumsfeld was part of the neocon network and already demanding war with Iraq.18
Signers of the letter also included such pro-Zionist and neo- conservative luminaries as Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Gaffney (Director, Center for Security Policy), Joshua Mu- ravchik (American Enterprise Institute), Martin Peretz (editor- in-chief, The New Republic), Leon Wieseltier {The New Repub- lic), and former Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.).19 President Clinton would only go so far as to support the Iraq Liberation Act, which allocated $97 million dollars for training and mili- tary equipment for the Iraqi opposition.20
In September 2000, the neocon think tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC)21 issued a report,
"Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Re- sources for a New Century," that envisioned an expanded global posture for the United States. In regard to the Middle East, the report called for an increased American military pres- ence in the Gulf, whether Saddam was in power or not:22
"the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justifi- cation, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein. "
The project's participants included individuals who would play leading roles in the second Bush administration: Cheney (Vice President), Rumsfeld (secretary of defense), Wolfowitz (deputy secretary of defense), and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). Weekly Standard editor William Kristol was also a co- author.
In order to directly influence White House policy, Wolfo- witz and Perle managed to obtain leading roles on the Bush for- eign policy/national security advisory team for the 2000 cam- paign. Headed by Soviet specialist Condoleezza Rice, the team was referred to as "the Vulcans." Having no direct experience in foreign policy and little knowledge of the world, as illus- trated by his notorious gaffes — confusing Slovakia with Slove- nia, referring to Greeks as "Grecians," and failing a pop quiz on the names of four foreign leaders — George W. Bush would have to rely heavily on his advisors.
"His foreign policy team," Kagan observed, "will be criti- cally important to determining what his policies are." And col- umnist Robert Novak noted: "Since Rice lacks a clear track re-
cord on Middle East matters, Wolfowitz and Perle will proba- bly weigh in most on Middle East policy."23 In short, Wolfowitz and Perle would provide the know-nothing Bush with a ready-made foreign policy for the Middle East. And cer- tainly such right-wing Zionist views would be reinforced by Cheney and Rumsfeld and the multitude of other neocons who would inundate Bush's administration.
Neocons would fill the key positions involving defense and foreign policy. On Rumsfeld's staff are Wolfowitz and Feith. On Cheney's staff, the principal neoconservatives include Libby, Eric Edelman, and John Hannah. And Cheney himself, with his long-time neocon connections and views, has played a significant role in shaping "Bush" foreign policy.24
A Perle among Men
Perle is often described as the most influential foreign- policy neoconservative, their eminence grise.25 He gained no- tice in the 1970s as a top aide to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jack- son (D-Wash.), who was one of the Senate's most anti- Communist and pro-Israeli members. During the 1980s, Perle served as deputy secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, where his hard-line anti-Soviet positions, especially his opposi- tion to any form of arms control, earned him the moniker "Prince of Darkness" from his enemies. However, his friends considered him, as one put it, "one of the most wonderful peo- ple in Washington." That Perle is known as a man of great in- tellect, a gracious and generous host, a witty companion, and a loyal ally helps to explain his prestige in neoconservative cir- cles.26
Perle isn't just an exponent of pro-Zionist views; he has also had close connections with Israel, being a personal friend of Sharon's, a board member of the Jerusalem Post, and an ex- employee of the Israeli weapons manufacturer Soltam. Accord- ing to author Seymour M. Hersh, while Perle was a congres- sional aide for Jackson, FBI wiretaps picked up Perle providing classified information from the National Security Council to the Israeli embassy.27 Although not technically part of the Bush administration, Perle holds the unpaid chairmanship of the De- fense Policy Board. In that position, Perle has access to classi- fied documents and close contacts with the administration lead- ership. As an article in Salon puts it:28
"Formerly an obscure civilian board designed to pro- vide the secretary of defense with non-binding advice on a whole range of military issues, the Defense Policy Board, now stacked with unabashed Iraq hawks, has become a quasi-lobbying organization whose primary objective ap- pears to be waging war with Iraq. "
"Actions Inconceivable at Present"
As Bush and his people came into office in January 2001, press reports in Israel quoted government officials and politi- cians speaking openly of mass expulsion of the Palestinians. Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel in February 2001; noted for his ruthlessness, he had said in the past that Jordan should become the Palestinian state where Palestinians removed from Israeli territory would be relocated.29 Public concern was mounting in Israel over demographic changes that threatened the Jewish nature of the Israeli state. Haifa Univer-
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sity professor Amon Sofer released the study, "Demography of Eretz Israel," which predicted that by 2020 non-Jews would be a majority of 58 percent in Israel and the occupied territories.30 Moreover, it was recognized that the overall increase in popula- tion would exceed what the land, with its limited supply of wa- ter, could support.31
It appeared to some that Sharon intended to achieve expul- sion through militant means. As one left-wing analyst put it at the time: "One big war with transfer at its end — this is the plan of the hawks who indeed almost reached the moment of its im- plementation."32 In the summer of 2001, the authoritative Jane's Information Group reported that Israel had completed the planning for a massive and bloody invasion of the Occupied Territories, involving "air strikes by F-15 and F-16 fighter bombers, a heavy artillery bombardment, and then an attack by a combined force of 30,000 men ... tank brigades and infantry." Such bold strikes would aim at far more than simply removing Arafat and the PLO leadership. But the United States vetoed the plan, and Europe made its opposition to Sharon's plans equally plain.33
As one close observer of the Israeli-Palestinian scene pre- sciently wrote in August 2001, "It is only in the current politi- cal climate that such expulsion plans cannot be put into opera- tion. As hot as the political climate is at the moment, clearly the time is not yet ripe for drastic action. However, if the tempera- ture were raised even higher, actions inconceivable at present might be possible."34 Once again, "revolutionary times" were necessary for Israel; to achieve its policy goals. And then came the September 1 1 attacks.
Revolutionary September
The September 11 atrocities provided the "revolutionary times" in which Israel could undertake radical measures unac- ceptable during normal conditions. When asked what the attack would do for U.S. -Israeli relations, former prime minister Ben- jamin Netanyahu responded: "It 's very good. " Then he edited himself:
"Well, not very good, but will generate immediate sym- pathy. "
Netanyahu correctly predicted that the attack would "strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced enemies would now terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemor- rhaging of terror." Sharon placed Israel in the same position as the United States, referring to the attack as an assault on "our common values" and declaring:35
"I believe together we can defeat these forces of evil. "
In the eyes of Israel's leaders, the September 1 1 attacks had joined the United States and Israeli together against a common enemy. And that enemy was not in far-off Afghanistan but was geographically close to Israel. Israel's traditional enemies would now become America's as well. And Israel would have a better chance of dealing with the Palestinians under the cover of a "war on terrorism."
Immediately after the 9/1 1 attacks, the neoconservatives be- gan to publicly push for a wider war on terrorism that would immediately deal with Israel's enemies. For example, Safire
held that the real terrorists that America should focus on were not groups of religious fanatics "but Iraqi scientists today work- ing feverishly in hidden biological laboratories and under- ground nuclear facilities [who] would, if undisturbed, enable the hate-driven, power-crazed Saddam to kill millions. That ca- pability would transform him from a boxed-in bully into a ram- pant world power."36
Within the administration, Wolfowitz clearly implied a broader war against existing governments when he said: 37
"I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but remov- ing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that 's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign. It's not going to stop if [only] a few criminals are taken care of. " On September 20, 2001, neocons of the Project for the New American Century sent a letter to President Bush endorsing the war on terrorism and stressing that the removal of Saddam was an essential part of that war. They maintained that "even if evi- dence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aim- ing at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international ter- rorism." Furthermore, the letter-writers opined, if Syria and Iran failed to stop all support for Hezbollah, the United States should "consider appropriate measures against these known sponsors of terrorism." Among the letter's signatories were such neoconservative luminaries as William Kristol, Midge Decter, Eliot Cohen, Francis Fukuyama, Gaffney, Kagan, Kirkpatrick, Charles Krauthammer, Perle, Peretz, Norman Pod- horetz, Solarz, and Wieselfer.38
World War IV
In the October 29, 2002, issue of The Weekly Standard, Kagan and Kristol predict a wider Middle Eastern war:39
"When all is said and done, the conflict in Afghanistan will be to the war on terrorism what the North Africa cam- paign was to World War II: an essential beginning on the path to victory. But compared with what looms over the ho- rizon— a wide-ranging war in locales from Central Asia to the Middle East and, unfortunately, back again to the United States -Afghanistan will prove but an opening bat- tle.... But this war will not end in Afghanistan. It is going to spread and engulf a number of countries in conflicts of varying intensity. It could well require the use of American military power in multiple places simultaneously. It is going to resemble the clash of civilizations that everyone has hoped to avoid. "
Kagan and Kristol seem to be looking forward to this gigan- tic conflagration.
In a November 20, 2001, article in The Wall Street Journal, Eliot Cohen dubs the conflict "World War IV," a term picked up by other neocons. Cohen proclaims:40
"The enemy in this war is not 'terrorism' [...] but mili- tant Islam. [...] Afghanistan constitutes just one front in World War IV, and the battles there just one campaign. " Cohen calls not only for a U.S. attack on Iraq but also for
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the elimination of the Islamic regime in Iran, which "would be no less important a victory in this war than the annihilation of bin Laden."41
Critics of a wider war in the Middle East quickly recognized the neoconservative war-propaganda effort. Analyzing the situation in September 2002, paleoconservative U Scott McConnell wrote:42
"For the neoconservatives [...] bin Laden is but a side- show. [...] They hope to use September 11 as pretext for opening a wider war in the Middle East. Their prime, but not only, target is Saddam Hussein 's Iraq, even if Iraq has nothing to do with the World Trade Center assault. " However, McConnell mistakenly considered the neocon stance to be only a minority view within the Bush administra- tion:42
"The neocon wish list is a recipe for igniting a huge conflagration between the United States and countries throughout the Arab world, with consequences no one could reasonably pretend to calculate. Support for such a war- which could turn quite easily into a global war-is a minority position within the Bush administration (assistant secretary of state Paul Wolfowitz is its main advocate) and the coun- try. But it presently dominates the main organs of conserva- tive journalistic opinion, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the Washington Times, as well as Marty Peretz 's neoliberal New Republic. In a vola- tile situation, such organs of opinion could matter. " Expressing a similar view, veteran columnist Georgie Anne Geyer observed:
"The 'Get Iraq' campaign [...] started within days of the September bombings. [...] // emerged first and particu- larly from pro-Israeli hard-liners in the Pentagon such as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and advisor Richard Perle, but also from hard-line neoconservatives, and some journalists and congressmen.
Soon it became clear that many, although not all, were in the group that is commonly called in diplomatic and po- litical circles the Tsraeli-firsters, ' meaning that they would always put Israeli policy, or even their perception of it, above anything else. "
Geyer believed that this line of thinking was "being con- tained by cool heads in the administration, but that could change at any time."43
Lighting up the Recesses of Bush
Neoconservatives have presented the September 1 1 atroci- ties as a lightning bolt to make President Bush aware of his des- tiny: destroying the evil of world terrorism. Ironically enough, Podhoretz adopted Christian terminology to describe a changed Bush:44
"A transformed — or, more precisely, a transfigured — George W. Bush appeared before us. In an earlier article [...] / suggested, perhaps presumptuously, that out of the blackness of smoke and fiery death let loose by September 11, a kind of revelation, blazing with a very different fire of its own, lit up the recesses of Bush 's mind and heart and soul. Which is to say that, having previously been unsure as to why he should have been chosen to become President of
the United States, George W. Bush now knew that the God to whom, as a born-again Christian, he had earlier commit- ted himself had put him in the Oval Office for a purpose. He had put him there to lead a war against the evil of terror- ism. "
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, administration heavy- weights debated the scope of the "war on terrorism." According to Bob Woodward's Bush at War, as early as September 12 Rumsfeld "raised the question of attacking Iraq. Why shouldn't we go against Iraq, not just al Qaeda? he asked. Rumsfeld was speaking not only for himself when he raised the question. His deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz, was committed to a policy that would make Iraq a principal target of the first round in the war on terrorism."45
Woodward adds:
"The terrorist attacks of September 11 gave the United
States a new window to go after Hussein. "
On September 15, Wolfowitz put forth military arguments to justify a U.S. attack on Iraq rather than Afghanistan. Wolfowitz expressed the view that "attacking Afghanistan would be uncertain," voicing the fear that American troops would be "bogged down in mountain fighting. [...] In contrast, Iraq was a brittle, oppressive regime that might break easily. It was doable."46
However, the neoconservatives were not able to achieve their goal of a wider war at the outset, in part because of the opposition of Secretary of State Powell, who held that the war should focus on the actual perpetrators of September 1 1 . (That was how most Americans actually envisioned the war.) Perhaps Powell's most telling argument was his declaration that an American attack on Iraq would lack international support. He claimed that a U.S. victory in Afghanistan would enhance the United States' ability to deal militarily with Iraq at a later time, "if we can prove that Iraq had a role" in September 1 1 47
Powell diverged from the neocon hawks in his emphasis on the need for international support, as opposed to American uni- lateralism, but an even greater difference lay in his contention that the "war on terror" had to be directly linked to the perpe- trators of September 11 — Osama bin Laden's network. Powell publicly repudiated Wolfowitz 's call for "ending states" with the response that "we're after ending terrorism. And if there are states and regimes, nations, that support terrorism, we hope to persuade them that it is in their interest to stop doing that. But I think 'ending terrorism' is where I would leave it and let Mr. Wolfowitz speak for himself."48
Very significantly, however, while the "war on terrorism" would not begin with an attack on Iraq, military plans were be- ing made for just such an endeavor. A Top Secret document outlining the war plan for Afghanistan, which Bush signed on September 17, 2001, included, as a minor point, instructions to the Pentagon to also start making plans for an attack on Iraq.49
Bush's public pronouncements evolved rapidly in the direc- tion of expanding the war to Iraq. On November 21, 2001, in a speech at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he proclaimed that "Af- ghanistan is just the beginning of the war against terror. There are other terrorists who threaten America and our friends, and there are other nations willing to sponsor them. We will not be secure as a nation until all these threats are defeated. Across the
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world, and across the years, we will fight these evil ones, and we will win."50
On November 26, in response to a question whether Iraq was one of the terrorist nations that he had in mind, Bush said: "Well, my message is, that if you harbor a terrorist,
you 're a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist, you 're a terrorist.
If you develop weapons of mass destruction that you want to
terrorize the world, you '11 be held accountable. "
Note that Bush included possession of weapons of mass de- struction as an indicator of "terrorism." And none of that terror- ist activity necessarily related to the September 1 1 attacks.51
Transformation Complete
The transformation to support of a wider war was complete with Bush's January 29, 2002, State of the Union speech, in which he officially decoupled the "war on terrorism" from the specific events of 9/11. Bush did not even mention bin Laden or al Qaeda. The danger now was said to come primarily from three countries — Iran, Iraq, and North Korea — which he dubbed "an axis of evil" that allegedly threatened the world with their weapons of mass destruction. According to Bush:52
"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic. "
The phrase "axis of evil" was coined by Bush's neoconser- vative speechwriter, David Frum.53
By April 2002, Bush was publicly declaring that American policy was to secure "regime change" in Iraq. And in June, he stated that the United States would launch preemptive strikes on those countries that threatened the United States.54 Accord- ing to what passes as the conventional wisdom, Iraq now posed such a threat. Moreover, by the spring of 2002, General Tommy R. Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, began giving Bush private briefings every three or four weeks on the planning for a new Iraq war.55
Neoconservatives both within and without the administra- tion sought a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq that would not be encumbered by the conflicting goals of any coalition partners. That push was countered by Powell's efforts to persuade Bush that UN sanction would be necessary to justify a U.S. attack, which the President ultimately found persuasive. That slowed the rush to war, but it also represented a move by Powell away from his original position that Washington should make war on Iraq only if Baghdad were proven to have been involved in the September 1 1 terrorism.
The UN Security Council decided that UN inspectors, with sweeping inspection powers, would determine whether Iraq was violating her pledge to destroy all of her weapons of mass de- struction. UN Security Council Resolution 1441 (November 8, 2002) places the burden of proof on Iraq to show that she no longer possesses weapons of mass destruction. The resolution states that any false statements or omissions in the Iraqi weapons declaration would constitute a further material breach by Iraq of
her obligations. That could set in motion discussions by the Secu- rity Council on considering the use of military force against Iraq.
While some have claimed that this might mean that war would be put off,56 it also allows the United States to use the new UN resolution as a legal justification for war. In fact, the United States could choose to enforce the resolution through war without additional UN authorization. As British journalist Robert Fisk writes:57
"The United Nations can debate any Iraqi non-compli- ance with weapons inspectors, but the United States will de- cide whether Iraq has breached UN resolutions. In other words, America can declare war without UN permission. "
Armchair Strategists
Neoconservatives not only have determined the foreign pol- icy leading to war against Iraq but have played a role in mold- ing military strategy as well. Top military figures, including members of the Joint Chiefs, initially expressed opposition to the whole idea of such a war.58 But Perle and other neoconser- vatives have for some time insisted that toppling Saddam would require little military effort or risk. They pushed for a war strat- egy dubbed "inside-out" that would involve attacking Baghdad and a couple of other key cities with a very small number of airborne troops, as few as 5,000 in some estimates. According to the plan's supporters, such strikes would cause Saddam's re- gime to collapse. American military leaders adamantly opposed that approach as too risky, offering in its stead a plan to use a much larger number of troops — about 250,000 — who would invade Iraq in a more conventional manner, marching from the soil of her neighbors, as was done during the Gulf War of 1991.
Perle and the neoconservatives, for their part, feared that no neighboring country would provide the necessary bases, so that this approach would likely mean that no war would be initiated or that, during the lengthy time needed to assemble this large force, opposition to war would so burgeon as to render the op- eration politically impossible. Perle angrily responded to the military's demurral by saying that the decision to attack Iraq was "a political judgment that these guys aren't competent to make."59 Cheney and Rumsfeld went even further, referring to the generals as "cowards" for being insufficiently gung-ho about an Iraq invasion.60
Now, one might be tempted to attribute Perle and the other neocons' rejection of the military's caution to insane hubris — how could amateurs pretend to know more about military strat- egy than professional military men? However, Richard Perle may be many things, but insane is not one of them. Nor is he stupid. Undoubtedly he has thought through the implications of his plan. And it is apparent that the "inside-out" option would be a win-win proposition from Perle 's perspective.
Let's assume that it works — that a few American troops can capture some strategic areas and the Iraqi army quickly folds. Perle and the neocons appear as military geniuses and are re- warded with free rein to prepare a series of additional low-cost wars in the Middle East.
On the other hand, let's assume that the mini-invasion is a complete fiasco. The American troops are defeated in the cities. Many are captured and paraded around for all the world to see. Saddam makes bombastic speeches about defeating the Ameri-
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can aggressor. All the Arab and Islamic world celebrates the American defeat. American flags are burned in massive anti- American celebrations throughout the Middle East. America is totally humiliated, depicted as a paper tiger, and ordinary Americans watch it all on TV. How do they react?
Such a catastrophe would be another Pearl Harbor in terms of engendering hatred of the enemy. The public would demand that American honor and prestige be avenged. They would ac- cept the idea fed to them by the neoconservative propagandists that the war was one between America and Islam. Washington would unleash total war, which would involve heavy bombing of cities. And the air attacks could easily spread from Iraq to the other neighboring Islamic states. A war of conquest and ex- termination is the neocons' fondest dream since it would de- stroy all of Israel's enemies in the Middle East. (It appears that the Pentagon has augmented the magnitude of the Iraq strike force to reduce the risk of the aforementioned scenario.)61
"Our Enemies, the Saudis"
Indications are plentiful that the war will not be limited to Iraq alone. On July 10, 2002, Laurent Murawiec, at Perle's be- hest, briefed the Defense Policy Board about Saudi Arabia, whose friendly relationship with the United States has been the linchpin of American security strategy in the Middle East for more than 50 years. Murawiec described the kingdom as the principal supporter of anti-American terrorism — "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent." It was necessary, he claimed, for the United States to regard Saudi Arabia as an enemy. Murawiec said Washington should de- mand that Riyadh stop funding fundamentalist Islamic outlets around the world, prohibit all anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli propa- ganda in the country, and "prosecute or isolate those involved in the terror chain, including in the Saudi intelligence services." If the Saudis refused to comply with the ultimatum, Murawiec contended that the United States should invade and occupy the country, including the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, seize her oil fields, and confiscate her financial assets.62
Murawiec concluded the briefing with the astounding sum- mary of what he called a "Grand Strategy for the Middle East:" "Iraq is the tactical pivot. Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot. Egypt the prize." In short, the goal of the war on Iraq was the destruction of the United States' closest allies. It would be hard to envision a policy better designed to inflame the entire Mid- dle East against the United States. But that is exactly the result sought by neoconservatives.62
Predictably, the day after the briefing, the Bush administra- tion disavowed Murawiec 's scenario as having nothing to do with actual American foreign policy and pronounced Saudi Arabia a loyal ally.62 However, the White House did nothing to remove or even discipline Perle for holding a discussion of a plan for attacking a close ally — and individuals have frequently been removed from administrations for much smaller faux pas. We may be certain that the Bush administration's inaction failed to assure the Saudis that Murawiec's war plan was be- yond the realm of possibility.
Murawiec's anti-Saudi scenario simultaneously emerged in the neocon press. The July 15, 2002, issue of The Weekly Standard featured an article titled "The Coming Saudi Show-
down," by Simon Henderson of the neoconservative Washing- ton Institute for Near East Policy. And the July/August issue of Commentary, published by the American Jewish Committee, contained an article titled, "Our Enemies, the Saudis."63
The leading neoconservative expert on Saudi Arabia, Stephen Schwartz, made his views known, too, though he did pay a price for it. Schwartz has written numerous articles as well as a recent book, The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror, in which he posits a Saudi/ Wahhabist conspiracy to take over all of Islam and spread ter- ror throughout the world. As a result of his anti-Saudi com- ments, Schwartz was dismissed from his brief tenure as an edi- torial writer with the Voice of America at the beginning of July 2002, thus becoming a martyr in neoconservative circles.64
As Thomas F. Ricks points out in the Washington Post, the anti-Saudi bellicosity expressed by Murawiec represents a point of view that has growing currency within the Bush administra- tion— especially on the staff of Vice President Cheney and in the Pentagon's civilian leadership — and among neoconserva- tive writers and thinkers closely allied with administration poli- cymakers."65
By November 2002, the anti-Saudi theme had reached the mainstream — with an article in Newsweek alleging financial support for the 9/11 terrorists from the Saudi royal family, and commentary on the subject by such leading figures in the Sen- ate as Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Charles Schumer (D-New York), and Richard Shelby (R- Ala.).66
Bush administration policy has come a long way but has still not reached what neocons seek: a war by the United States against all of Islam. According to Podhoretz, doyen of the neo- conservatives: "Militant Islam today represents a revival of the expansionism by the sword" of Islam's early years.67 In Pod- horetz's view, to survive resurgent Islam the United States must not simply stand on the defensive but must stamp out militant Islam at its very source in the Middle East:
"The regimes that richly deserve to be overthrown and replaced are not confined to the three singled-out members of the axis of evil. At a minimum, this axis should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as "friends" of America like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian Authority, whether headed by Arafat or one of his henchmen. " After the great conquest, the United States would remake the entire region, which would entail forcibly re-educating its people to fall into line with the thinking of America's leaders. Podhoretz acknowledges that the people of the Middle East might, if given a free democratic choice, pick anti-American and anti-Israeli leaders and policies. But he proclaims that "there is a policy that can head it off provided "that we then have the stomach to impose a new political culture on the de- feated parties. This is what we did directly and unapologetically in Germany and Japan after winning World War II."68
Expulsion Redux
Within Israel herself, however, the Arabs would not be ex- pected to adopt a "new political culture"; they would be ex- pected to vanish.
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Expulsion of the Palestinians is inextricably intertwined with a Middle Eastern war — or, in Ben-Gurion's phrase, "revo- lutionary times." As the post-September 1 1 "war on terror" has heated up, the talk of forcibly "transferring" the Palestinians has once again moved to the center of Israeli politics. Accord- ing to Illan Pappe, a Jewish Israeli revisionist historian, "You can see this new assertion talked about in Israel: the discourse of transfer and expulsion which had been employed by the ex- treme Right, is now the bon ton of the center."69
Even the dean of Israel's revisionist historians, Benny Mor- ris, explicitly endorsed the expulsion of the Palestinians in the event of war. "This land is so small," Morris exclaimed, "that there isn't room for two peoples. In fifty or a hundred years, there will only be one state between the sea and the Jordan. That state must be Israel.".
According to a recent poll conducted by Israel's Jaffee Cen- ter for Strategic Studies, nearly one-half of Israelis support ex- pulsion of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, and nearly one- third support expulsion of Israeli Arabs. Three-fifths support "encouraging" Israeli Arabs to leave.70
In April 2002, leading Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld held that a U.S. attack on Iraq would provide the cover for Prime Minister Sharon to forcibly remove the Palestinians from the West Bank. In Creveld' s view, "The expulsion of the Palestinians would require only a few brigades," which would rely on "heavy artillery." Creveld continued:71
"Israeli military experts estimate that such a war could be over in just eight days. If the Arab states do not inter- vene, it will end with the Palestinians expelled and Jordan in ruins. If they do intervene, the result will be the same, with the main Arab armies destroyed. [...] Israel would stand triumphant, as it did in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. " Although Creveld did not express any opposition to this im- pending expulsion, in September 2002, a group of Israeli aca- demics did issue a declaration of opposition, stating:72
"We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war ' could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people, up to full- fledged ethnic cleansing. [...] The Israeli ruling coalition includes parties that promote 'transfer' of the Palestinian population as a solution to what they call 'the demographic problem. ' Politicians are regularly quoted in the media as suggesting forcible expulsion, most recently [Knesset mem- bers] Michael Kleiner and Benny Elon, as reported on Yediot Ahronot website on September 19, 2002. In a recent interview in Ha'aretz, Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon de- scribed the Palestinians as a 'cancerous manifestation ' and equated the military actions in the Occupied Territories with 'chemotherapy, ' suggesting that more radical 'treat- ment ' may be necessary. Prime Minister Sharon has backed this 'assessment of reality. ' Escalating racist demagoguery concerning the Palestinian citizens of Israel may indicate the scope of the crimes that are possibly being contem- plated. "
In the fall of 2002, the Jordanian government, fearing that Israel might push the Palestinian population into Jordan during the anticipated U.S. attack on Iraq, asked for public assurances from the Israeli government that it would not make such a
move. The Sharon regime, however, has refused to publicly re- nounce an expulsion policy.73
Simply a Pretext
As is now apparent, the "war on terrorism" was never in- tended to be a war to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of the September 1 1 atrocities. September 1 1 simply provided a pretext for government leaders to implement long-term policy plans. As has been pointed out elsewhere, including in my own writing, oil interests and American imperialists looked upon the war as a way to incorporate oil-rich Central Asia within the American imperial orbit.74 While that has been achieved, the American-sponsored government of Hamid Karzai in Afghani- stan is in a perilous situation. Karzai's power seems to be lim- ited to his immediate vicinity, and he must be protected by American bodyguards. The rest of Afghanistan is being fought over by various war lords and even the resurgent Taliban.75 In- stead of putting forth the effort to help consolidate its position in Central Asia, Washington has shifted its focus to gaining control of the Middle East.
It now appears that the primary policymakers in the Bush administration have been the Likudnik neoconservatives all along. Control of Central Asia is secondary to control of the Middle East. In fact, for the leading neocons, the war on Af- ghanistan may simply have been an opening gambit, necessary for reaching their ultimate and crucial goal: U.S. control of the Middle East in the interests of Israel. That is analogous to what revisionist historians have presented as Franklin D. Roosevelt's "back door to war" approach to World War II. Roosevelt sought war with Japan in order to be able to fight Germany, and he provoked Japan into attacking U.S. colonial possessions in the Far East. Once the United States got into war through the back door, Roosevelt focused the American military effort on Germany.76
The Oil Motive
But what about the American desire for controlling Iraqi oil? Iraq possesses the world's second-largest proven oil re- serves, next to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, many experts believe that Iraq possesses vast undiscovered oil reserves, making her the near-equal of Saudi Arabia. Most critics of war allege that American oil companies' desire to gain control of Iraqi oil is what motivates U.S. war policy. Some, mostly proponents of war, have also argued that, once in control of Iraqi oil, the United States could inundate the world with cheap oil, thus boosting the American and world economies out of recession.77
Although the arguments have a prima facie plausibility, the oil motive for war has a couple of serious flaws. First, oil in- dustry representatives or big economic moguls do not seem to be clamoring for war. According to oil analyst Anthony Sampson, "oil companies have had little influence on U.S. pol- icy-making. Most big American companies, including oil com- panies, do not see a war as good for business, as falling share prices indicate."78
Further, it is not apparent that war would be good for the oil industry or the world economy. Why would Big Oil want to risk a war that could ignite a regional conflagration threatening their existing investments in the Gulf? Iraq does indeed have
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significant oil reserves, but there is no reason to believe that they would have an immediate impact on the oil market. Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates,
79
points out:
"In terms of production capacity, Iraq represents just 3 percent of the world's total. Its oil exports are on the same level as Nigeria 's. Even if Iraq doubled its capacity, that could take more than a decade. In the meantime, growth elsewhere would limit Iraq 's eventual share to perhaps 5 percent, significant but still in the second tier of oil na- tions. "
A war would pose a great risk to the oil industry in the en- tire Gulf region. As William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale and a member of the President Carter's Council of Economic Advisers, writes:80
"War in the Persian Gulf might produce a major up- heaval in petroleum markets, either because of physical damage or because political events lead oil producers to re- strict production after the war.
A particularly worrisome outcome would be a wholesale destruction of oil facilities in Iraq, and possibly in Kuwait, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. In the first Persian Gulf War, Iraq destroyed much of Kuwait 's oil wells and other petroleum infrastructure as it withdrew. The sabotage shut down Ku- waiti oil production for close to a year, and prewar levels of oil production were not reached until 1993 — nearly two years after the end of the war in February 1991.
Unless the Iraqi leadership is caught completely off- guard in a new war, Iraq 's forces would probably be able to destroy Iraq 's oil production facilities. The strategic ra- tionale for such destruction is unclear in peacetime, but such an act of self-immolation cannot be ruled out in war- time. Contamination of oil facilities in the Gulf region by biological or chemical means would pose even greater threats to oil markets. "
Nordhaus 's forecasts may be excessively bleak. However, the point is that the experts simply cannot gauge what will hap- pen. War poses tremendous risk. In his evaluation of the possi- ble economic impact of a war on Iraq, economic analyst Robert J. Samuelson concludes:81
"If it 's peace and prosperity, then war makes no sense.
But if fighting now prevents a costlier war later, it makes
much sense. "
None of this to deny that certain oil companies might bene- fit from a Middle East war, just as some businesses profit from any war. Particular oil companies could stand to benefit from American control of Iraq, since under a postwar U.S.-sponsored Iraqi government, American companies could be expected to be favored and gain the most lucrative oil deals. However, that particular oil companies could derive some benefits does not undercut the overall argument that war is a great risk for the American oil industry and the American economy as a whole.
An American-imperialist strategic motive might be more plausible than the economic interests of the oil industry and the economy in general. Instead of the current informal influence over the oil producing areas of the Middle East, the United States would move into direct control, either with a puppet government in Iraq providing enough leverage for Washington
to dictate to the rest of the Middle East, or actual direct U.S. control of other parts of the Middle East as well as Iraq. Pre- sumably that state of affairs would provide greater security for the oil flow than exists under the current situation, where the client states enjoy some autonomy and face the possibility of being overthrown by anti- American forces. Neoconservative Robert Kagan maintains:82
"When we have economic problems, it's been caused by
disruptions in our oil supply. If we have a force in Iraq,
there will be no disruption in oil supplies. "
Neoconservatives often try to gloss over this projected American colonialism by claiming that the United States would be simply spreading democracy. They imply that "democratic" Middle East governments would support American policies, in- cluding support of Israel and an oil policy oriented toward the welfare of the United States.
However, given popular anti-Zionist and anti-American opinion in the region, it seems highly unlikely that governments representative of the popular will would ever pursue such poli- cies. Only a non-representative dictatorship could be pro- American and pro-Israeli. Zionist U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D- Calif.) put it candidly in calming the worries of an Israeli mem- ber of the Knesset:83
"You won 't have any problem with Saddam. We '11 be rid
of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we '11 install a
pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you. "
A Truly Foreign Imperialism
Control of the Middle East oil supply would certainly aug- ment U.S. domination of the world. However, American impe- rialists who are in no way linked to the Likudnik position on Is- rael— e.g., Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft — are cool to such a Middle East war.84 If such a war policy would be an obvious boon to American imperialism, why isn't it avidly sought by leading American imperialists? Direct colonial con- trol of a country's internal affairs would be a significant break with American policy of the past half-century. America might have client states and an informal empire, but the direct imperi- alism entailed by an occupation of the Middle East would be, as Mark Danner put it in the New York Times, "wholly foreign to the modesty of containment, the ideology of a status-quo power that lay at the heart of American strategy for half a century."85
Moreover, a fundamental concern of American global pol- icy has been to maintain peace and stability in the world. Wash- ington preaches probity and restraint to other countries regard- ing the use of force. Hence, for the United States to launch a preemptive strike on a country would undoubtedly weaken her ability to restrain other countries, which would also see a need to preemptively strike at their foes. In short, the launching of preemptive war would destabilize the very world order that the United States allegedly seeks to preserve in her "war on terror- ism." In fact, world stability is often seen as central to the global economic interdependence that is the key to American prosperity.86
Since America already exercises considerable power in the oil-producing Persian Gulf region through her client states — Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates — it is difficult to under- stand why American imperialists would make a radical change
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from their status-quo policy. Would the benefits to be gained from direct control of the region outweigh the risks involved? War could unleash virulent anti- American forces that could de- stabilize America's Middle East client states and incite terrorist attacks on the American homeland. Moreover, American mili- tary occupation of Iraq, not to mention other Middle Eastern countries, would place a heavy burden on the U.S. government and people.87
Would such a burden be acceptable to the American peo- ple? Would they support the brutal policies needed to suppress any opposition? In the 1950s, the people of France would not support the brutality necessary to retain the colonial empire in Algeria. Even in the totalitarian Soviet Union, popular opinion forced the abandonment of the imperialistic venture in Af- ghanistan, which contributed to the break-up of the entire So- viet empire. In short, the move from indirect to direct control of the Middle East would strike men who were simply concerned about enhancing American imperial power as the gravest sort of risk-taking, because it could undermine America's entire impe- rial project.
Direct American control of the Middle East would not only prove burdensome to the American people but would also un- doubtedly provoke a backlash from other countries. That almost seems to be a law of international relations — operating since the time of the balance-of-power politics practiced during the Peloponnesian War. As Christopher Layne points out:88
"The historical record shows that in the real world, he- gemony never has been a winning grand strategy. The rea- son is simple: The primary aim of states in international politics is to survive and maintain their sovereignty. And when one state becomes too powerful — becomes a he- gemon — the imbalance of power in its favor is a menace to the security of all other states. So throughout modem inter- national political history, the rise of a would-be hegemon always has triggered the formation of counter-hegemonic alliances by other states. "
The British Empire, which might seem an exception to the rule of the inevitable failure of hegemons, achieved its success because of its caution. Owen Harries, editor of the National In- terest, has pointed out that England's imperial successes stemmed from her rather cautious approach. In the Spring 2001 issue, Harries observed: 89
"England was the only hegemon that did not attract a hostile coalition against itself. It avoided that fate by show- ing great restraint, prudence and discrimination in the use of its power in the main political arena by generally stand- ing aloof and restricting itself to the role of balancer of last resort. In doing so it was heeding the warning given it by Edmund Burke, just as its era of supremacy was beginning: T dread our own power and our own ambition. I dread be- ing too much dreaded. ' I believe the United States is now in dire need of such a warning. "
Obviously, the American takeover of the major oil- producing area of the world would be anything but a cautious move. It would characterize a classic example of what historian Paul Kennedy refers to as "imperial over- stretch." Tied down in the Middle East, the United States would find it more difficult to counter threats to its power in the rest of the world. Even
now it is questionable whether the U.S. military has the capa- bility to fight two wars at once, a problem (from the standpoint of the U.S. regime) that has now come to the fore with the bel- licosity of North Korea.90 In essence, it is not apparent that in- telligent American imperialists concerned solely about the power status of the United States, which holds preeminence in the world right now, would want to take the risk of a Middle East war and occupation.
No American Motive
The previous analysis leads to the conclusion not only that the neoconservatives are obviously in the forefront of the pro- war bandwagon but also that pro-Israeli Likudnik motives are the most logical, probably the only logical, motives for war. As I have noted, Likudniks have always sought to deal in a radical fashion with the Palestinian problem in the occupied territo- ries— a problem that has gotten worse, from their standpoint, as a result of demographic changes. A U.S. war in the Middle East at the present time provides a window of opportunity to perma- nently solve that problem and augment Israel's dominance in the region. The existing perilous situation, as Likud thinkers see it, would justify the taking of substantial risks. And a look at history shows that countries whose leaders believed they were faced with grave problems pursued risky policies, such as Japan did in 1941. 91
In contrast, no such dire threats face the United States. American imperialists should be relatively satisfied with the status quo and averse to taking any risks that might jeopardize it.
The deductions drawn in this essay seem obvious but are rarely broached in public because Jewish power is a taboo sub- ject. As the intrepid Joseph Sobran puts it:92
"It's permissible to discuss the power of every other group, from the Black Muslims to the Christian Right, but the much greater power of the Jewish establishment is off- limits. "
So in a check for "hate" or "anti-Semitism," let's recapitu- late the major points made in this essay. First, the initiation of a Middle East war to solve Israeli security problems has been a long-standing idea among Israeli rightist Likudniks. Next, Li- kudnik-oriented neoconservatives argued for American in- volvement in such a war prior to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. Since September 11, neocons have taken the lead in ad- vocating such a war, and they hold influential foreign policy and national security positions in the Bush administration.
If Israel and Jews were not involved, there would be noth- ing extraordinary about my thesis. In the history of foreign pol- icy, it has frequently been maintained that various leading fig- ures were motivated by ties to business, an ideology, or a for- eign country. In his Farewell Address, George Washington ex- pressed the view that the greatest danger to American foreign relations would be the "passionate attachment" of influential Americans to a foreign power, which would orient U.S. foreign policy for the benefit of that power to the detriment of the United States. It is just such a situation that currently exists.
We can only look with trepidation to the near future, for in the ominous words of Robert Fisk:93 "There is a firestorm coming. "
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Notes
1 Paul W. Schroeder, "Iraq: The Case Against Preemptive War," The Ameri- can Conservative, October 21, 2002
(www.amconmag.com/10_21/iraq.html). In fact the spectacle of a powerful nation under the direction of a weaker one is not unprecedented. The great revisionist diplomatic historian Charles C. Tansill maintained: "The main objective of American foreign policy since 1900 has been the preservation of the British Empire." (Back Door to War. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1952, p. 3.) Britain was able to achieve her goal through media propaganda and sympathizers in high places in the United States. See Nicholas John Cull, Selling War. The British Propaganda Campaign against American 'Neutrality "in World War II (Oxford University Press, 1995) and Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Opera- tions in the United States, 1939-44 (Washington: Brassey's, 1998).
2 Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace. Jews and the State (Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 23 1. On the connections among Jews, Zionism, and neoconservatism, see Paul Gottfried, The Conservative Movement (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993); J. J. Goldberg, Jewish Power. Inside the Jewish Establishment (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1996), pp. 159-162; Peter Steinfels, The Neo- conservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America 's America 's Politics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979); Gary Dorrien, The Neoconserva- tive Mind Politics, Culture, and the War of Ideology (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1993); and James Neuchterlein, "This Time: Neoconservatism Redux," First Things, 66 (October 1996), pp. If. (www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9610/opinion/neuchterlein.html).
3 Joshua Micah Marshall, "Bomb Sadddam?: How the obsession of a few neocon hawks became the central goal of U.S. foreign policy," Washington Monthly, June 2002
(www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.marshall.html); Kath- leen and Bill Christison, "A Rose By Another Other Name. The Bush Ad- ministration's Dual Loyalties," CounterPunch, December 13, 2002 (www.counterpunch.org/christisonl213.html). See also Christopher Mat- thews, "The road to Baghdad," San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 2002; Justin Raimondo, "Our Hijacked Foreign Policy: Neoconservatives take Washington— Baghdad is next," March 25, 2002
(www.antiwar.com/justin/j032502.html); Holger Jensen, "Pre-Emption, Disarmament Or Regime Change? Part III," October 7, 2002 (www.antiwar.com/orig/jensenlb.html); Scott McConnell, "The Struggle over War Aims: Bush versus the Neo-Cons," September 25, 2002 (www.antiwar.com/mcconnell/mc092501.html); and Jim Lobe, "Neocon- servatives Consolidate Control over U.S. Mideast Policy," Foreign Policy in Focus, December 6, 2002 (http://www.foreignpolicy- infocus.org/commentary/2002/0212abrams.html). As will become obvious, much of the material in this essay derives from authors who express the be- lief that neoconservatives are a leading force for war with Iraq.
4 Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000), pp. 404f. For a history of Zionist ideas on expulsion, see Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (Wash- ington: Institute of Palestine Studies, 1992).
5 Quoted in Norman Finkelstein, "Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict," Introduction to German edition (10 July 2002) (www.normanfmkelstein.com/idl27.htm).
' Ralph Schoenman, The Hidden History of Zionism, Chapter 12, "Strategy for Conquest," 1988
(http://www.balkanunity.org/mideast/english/zionism/chl2.htm).
7 Yehoshafat Harkabi, Israeli Fateful Hour (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 57f.
8 Stephen R. Shalom, "The United States and the Iran-Iraq War," http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/ShalomIranIraq.html; Jeremy Scahill, "The Saddam in Rumsfeld's Closet," Common Dreams, August 2, 2002, http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-0 1 .htm; Robert Windrem, "Rumsfeld key player in Iraq policy shift," MSNBC, August 18, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/795649.asp; Chris Bury, "The U.S. -Iraq rela- tionship was not always about confrontation," September 18, 2002, http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/us_iraq_historyl_02 0917.ht ml; and Michael Dobbs, "U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup,"
Washington Post, December 30, 2002, p. A-l,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52241-2002Dec29.html.
9 B. Ginsberg, op. cit. (note 2), p. 208.
10 Christopher Lane, "Why the Gulf War was Not in the National Interest," The Atlantic, July 1991
(http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/91jul/layne.htm).
1 1 Arnold Beichman, "How the divide over Iraq strategies began," Washington Times, November 27, 2002
(http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/beichman.htm).
12 Warren Strobel, "Bush won't back loan to Jewish state," Washington Times, March 18, 1992, p. A7; Michael Hedge, "Israeli lobby president resigns over promises," Washington Times, November 4, 1992, p. A-3; "Loan Guarantees for Israel," Washington Times, September 11, 1992, p. F-2; Frank Gaffney, Jr., "Neocon job that begs for answers," ibid., October 13, 1992, p. F-l; Andrew Borowiec, "Group counters Bush on Israel," ibid., February 27, 1992, p. A-l; and Ginsberg, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 218-223. An interesting side note: In Jewish Power, J.J. Goldberg observes (p. 234) that "in 1991, at the height of the Bush administration's confrontation with Is- rael, no fewer than seven of the nineteen assistant secretaries in the State Department were Jews."
lj The neonconservative takeover of the mainstream conservative intellectual movement is recounted by Paul Gottfried, op. cit. (note 2).
14 Brian Whitaker, "US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy," The Guard- ian, August 19, 2002
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,777100,00.ht ml).
15 Jason Vest, "The Men From JINSA and CSP," The Nation, September 2, 2002 (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=vest&c=l).
16 The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000," "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (www.israeleconomy.org/stratl.htm).
17 "Open Letter to the President," February 19, 1998, http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/rumsfeld-openletter.htm; Frank Gaffney, "End Saddam's Reign of Terror: Better late than never," National Review Online, February 21, 2002,
http://www.nationalreview.com/contributors/gaffney 022101.shtml.
18 Rumsfeld has a long record as an avid supporter of Israel. For example, he has spoken at "Solidarity with Israel" dinners hosted by the "International Fellowship of Christians and Jews." Michael Gillespie, "Bill Moyers, mod- ernity, Islam," Middle East Times, 30 (2002) (www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-30/opin/bill_moyers.htm).
19 "Open Letter to the President," and F. Gaffney, both op. cit. (note 17).
20 Seymour Hersh, "The Iraq Hawks," New Yorker, December 20, 2001 (http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/targets/1220hawks.htm).
21 PNAC describes itself as follows: "Established in the spring of 1997, the Project for the New American Century is a non-profit, educational organiza- tion whose goal is to promote American global leadership. The Project is an initiative of the New Citizenship Project (501c3); the New Citizenship Pro- jects chairman is William Kristol and its president is Gary Schmitt." (http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm)
22 Neil Mackay, "Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming Presi- dent," Scottish Sunday Herald, September 15, 2002 (http://www.sundayherald.com/print27735).
23 Ian Urbina, "Rogues' Gallery: Who Advises Bush and Gore on the Middle East?," Middle East Report, 2 1 6, Fall 2000 (http://www.merip.org/mer/mer2 1 6/2 1 6_urbina.html).
24 Glenn Kessler and Peter Slevin, "Cheney Is Fulcrum of Foreign Policy: In Interagency Fights, His Views Often Prevail," Washington Post, October 13,2002, A-l.
25 J.M. Marshall, op. cit. (note 3).
26 Eric Boehlert, "The Armchair General," Salon, September 5, 2002 (www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/09/05/perle/). Sidney Blumenthal would write that Perk "had done more to shape the administration's nuclear arms policy than perhaps any individual except Reagan himself." ("Richard Pede, Disarmed but Undeterred," Washington Post, November 23, 1987, p. B-l.)
27 Holger Jensen, op. cit. (note 3); J. Vest, op. cit. (note 15); and Seymour M. Hersh, "Kissinger and Nixon in the White House," The Atlantic Monthly, 24:5 (May, 1982) (www.theatlantic.com/issues/82may/hershwh2.htm).
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28 E. Boehlert, op. cit. (note 26).
29 Ronald Bleier, "Sharon Routs Bush: Palestinians now vulnerable to expul- sion," August 2001 (http://desip.igc.org/SharonRoutsBush.html), and Bleier, "The Next Expulsion of the Palestinians," January 2001 (http://desip.igc.org/TheNextExpulsion.html).
30 Tikva Honig Parnass, "Israel's Recent Conviction: Apartheid in Palestine Can Only Be Preserved through Force," Between the Lines, September 2001 (www.between- lines.org/archives/2001/sep/Tikva_Honig-Parnass.htm).
31 R. Bleier, "Sharon Gears Up for Expulsion," January 2002 (http://desip.igc.org/SharonGearsUp.html).
32 Tikvah Honig-Parnass, "Louder Voices of War-. Manufacturing Consent at its Peak," Between the Lines, 1 : 8 (July 2001), quoted in R. Bleier, "Sharon Routs Bush" (note 29).
33 Jane 's Foreign Report (July 12, 2001), quoted in Finkelstein, "Israelis Gen- erals' Plan to 'Smash' Palestinians," July 12, 2002, Mid-Easy Realities, (www.middleeast.org/premium/read.cgi?category=Magazine&standalone= &num= 278&month=7&year=2001&function=text); and Tanya Reinhart, "The Second Half of 1948," Mid-East Realities, June 20, 2001 (www.middleeast.org/premium/read.cgi?category=Magazine&num=251&m onth=6&year=200 1 &function=text).
34 Bleier, "Sharon Routs Bush" (note 29).
35 James Bennet, "Spilled Blood Is Seen as Bond That Draws 2 Nations Closer," New York Times, September 12, 2001, p. A22 (www.nytimes.com/200 1/09/1 2/international/ 1 2ISRA.html); "Horrific trag- edy, the media, Palestinian reaction," Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre (www.jmcc.org/new/0 1/Sep/us.htm).
36 William Safire, "The Ultimate Enemy," New York Times, September 24, 2001 (www.embargos.de/irak/postl 109/english/ultimateenemynyt.htm).
37 Department of Defense News Briefing — Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz, Sep- tember 13, 2001
(www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/t09132001j0913dsd.html).
38 William Kristol & others, "Toward a Comprehensive Strategy: A letter to the president," September 20, 200 1
(www.nationalreview.com/document/document092101b.shtml), and "Pro- ject for the New American Century" (www.newamericancentury.org/Bushletter.htm).
39 Robert Kagan and William Kristol, "The Gathering Storm," The Weekly Standard, 7:7 (October 29, 2001)
(http://theweeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/384thh hq.asp).
40 Eliot A. Cohen, "World War IV," The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2001 (www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95001493).
41 Paleoconservatives are the conservative opponents of the neoconservatives. In regard to foreign policy matters, they tend to support noninterventionism. Paleocons are much less powerful than neocons. Almost all think tanks re- ferred to as "conservative" or "right-wing" by the Establishment media are dominated by the neoconservatives.
42 Scott McConnell, op. cit. (note 3).
43 Georgic Anne Geyer, "Pro-Israeli, Anti-Arab Campaigns Could Isolate America," October 25, 2001
(www.uexpress.com/georgieannegeyer/index.cfm?uc_full_date=2001 1025 &uc_comic=gg&uc_daction= X).
44 Norman Podhoretz, "In Praise of the Bush Doctrine," Commentary (Sep- tember 2002)
(www.ourjerusalem.com/opinion/story/opinion20020904a.html).
45 Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 49.
46 Ibid.,p.S3.
47 Ibid, p. 84.
48 Patrick E. Tyler and Elaine Sciolino, "Bush's Advisers Split on Scope of Retaliation," New York Times, September 20, 2002
(www.stanford.edu/class/intnlrell93/readings/week4/split.html), and Julian Borger, "Washington's hawk trains sights on Iraq," October 15, 2001 (www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,558276,00.html).
49 Glenn Kessler, "U.S. Decision on Iraq Has Puzzling Past," Washington Post, January 12, 2002, p. A-l (www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A43909- 2003Janl 1 .html).
50 "Bush Promises Military All It Needs to Win Long Battle Ahead, President addressed the troops at Fort Campbell, KY," November 21, 2002, U.S. De- partment of State (http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01 1 121 13.htm).
51 "Bush Meets with Aid Workers Rescued from Afghanistan," November 26, 2002 (http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01 1 12607.htm).
52 "President Delivers State of the Union Address," January 29, 2002 (www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/0 1/20020 129- 1 1 .html).
5j Matthew Engel, "Proud wife turns 'axis of evil' speech into a resignation letter," The Guardian, February 27, 2002 (www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,658724,00.html).
54 B. Woodward, op. cit. (note 45), p. 330.
55 Glenn Kessler, "U.S. Decision on Iraq Has Puzzling Past," Washington Post, January 12, 2002, p. A-20.
56 Justin Raimondo, "War Party Stalled," November 20, 2002 (www.antiwar.com/justin/j 1 12002.html).
57 Robert Fisk, "George Bush Crosses Rubicon — But What Lies Beyond?," The Independent, November 9, 2002 (www.commondreams.org/views02/l 109-03.htm).
58 Thomas F. Ricks, "Some Top Military Brass Favor Status Quo in Iraq," Washington Post, July 28, 2002, p. A-l.
59 Richard Norton-Taylor, "British military chiefs uneasy about attack plans," The Age, July 31, 2002
(www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/30/1027926884871.html).
60 Justin Raimondo, "Attack of the Chicken-Hawks," August 2, 2002 (www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j080202.html); and Doug Thompson, "Sud- denly, the hawks are doves and the doves are hawks," Capitol Hill Blue (http://chblue.com/artman/publish/article_165.shtml).
61 Julian Borger, "Pentagon build-up reaches unstoppable momentum," The Guardian, December 31, 2002
(www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,866919,00.html).
62 Thomas E. Ricks, "Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies," Washington Post, August 6, 2002, p. A-l; and Jack Shafer, "The PowerPoint That Rocked the Pentagon: The LaRouchie defector who's advising the defense establishment on Saudi Arabia," Slate, August 7, 2002 (http://slate.msn.com//?id=2069 119).
63 Simon Henderson, "The Coming Saudi Showdown," The Weekly Standard, July 15,2002
(www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/henderson/henderson071 502. htm);Vic tor Davis Hanson, "Our Enemies, the Saudis," Commentary, July/ August 2002. See also Simon Henderson, "The Saudi Way," Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2002
(www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=l 100021 16); and Clau- dia Rosett, "Free Arabia," Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2002 (www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=l 10002126).
64 Ronald Radosh, "State Department Outrage: The Firing of Stephen Schwartz," Front Page Magazine, July 2, 2002 (www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=1610); Stephen Schwartz, "Defeating Wahabbism," Front Page Magazine, October 25, 2002 (www.frontpagemag.com/ Articles/Printable. asp?ID=4178); and Stephen Schwartz, Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa 'ud from Tradition to Terror (New York: Doubleday & Co., 2002).
Among the favorable views of Schwartz: William Kristol writes that "no one has done more to expose the radical, Saudi- Wahhabi face of Islam than Stephen Schwartz." And maverick pro-war leftist Christopher Hichens chimes in that "Stephen Schwartz's work is exemplary in illuminating intra- Muslim distinctions, both historic and theological; distinctions which are of the first importance for the rest of the world to understand. He is a most ar- ticulate enemy of Islamo fascism."
(www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/display.pperl?isbn=0385506929) Schwartz depicts most of Islam as peaceful, with only the Wahhabi variety being dangerous. While his argument could be used to remove some Islamic countries (such as Iraq and Iran) from the enemies list, it does not seem to have that effect.
65 T.E. Ricks, op. cit. (note 62).
66 Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas, "The Saudi Money Trail," Newsweek, December 2, 2002; Calvin Woodward, "Saudi princess's largess may extend to terrorists," The Associated Press, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.), November 25, 2002 (www.tribnet.com/news/story/2218751p- 2286814c.html).
67 Norman Podhoretz, "How to Win World War IV," Commentary, February 2002,
68 N. Podhoretz, op. cit. (note 44).
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297
Jacob A. Mundy, "Palestine: 'Transfer' or Apartheid," Eat The State, 7:6 (November 20, 2002) (http://eatthestate.org/07- 06/PalestineTransferApartheid.htm).
"Many Israelis content to see Palestinians go," in Chicago Sun-Times (March 14, 2002) Uaffee poll); Ad Shavit, "Waiting for the sign," in Haaretz (March 22, 2002); and Tom Segev, "A black flag hangs over the idea of transfer," in Haaretz (April 5, 2002), quoted in Finkelstein, "Image and Reality," op. cit. (note 5).
Martin van Creveld, "Warning: Sharon's plan is to drive Palestinians across the Jordan," Daily Telegraph, April 28, 2002
(www. telegraph. co. uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/28/wpal28.xm 1; www. seeingred.com/Copy/5. 3_sharons_plan.html). "Urgent Plea to Prevent Massive War Crimes Comes from Israeli Academ- ics," Mid-East Realities, September 22, 2002
(www.middleeast.org/premium/read.cgi?category=Magazine&num=752&m onth=9&year=2002&function=text).
Aluf Benn, "PM rejects Jordan's request to rale out 'transfer' in Iraq war," Ha 'aretz, November 29, 2002
(www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=235416&contras
sID= 2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y).
See Stephen J. Sniegoski, "September 1 1 and the origins of the 'War on
Terrorism': A revisionist account," Part 3, The Last Ditch
(www.thornwalker.com/ditch/towers_3.htm).
Eric Margolis, "Details of U.S. victory are a little premature," Toronto Sun, December 22, 2002 (www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_dec22.html). For a review of Roosevelt's efforts to get the United States into the war, see Stephen J. Sniegoski, "The Case for Pearl Harbor Revisionism," The Occi- dental Quarterly, 1:2 (Winter 2001)
(www.charlesmartelsociety.org/toq/vollno2/ss-pearlharbor.html), and "Pearl Harbor: Facing facts," The Last Ditch (www.thornwalker.com/ditch/pearl.htm).
Undersecretary of Commerce Grant Aldonas told a business forum that a war in Iraq "would open up this spigot on Iraqi oil, which certainly would have a profound effect in terms of the performance of the world economy for those countries that are manufacturers and oil consumers." Michael Moran and Alex Johnson, "Oil after Saddam: All bets are in," MSNBC News, November 7, 2002 (www.msnbc.com/news/823985.asp70sl— 10#BODY).
Anthony Sampson, "Oilmen don't want another Suez," Guardian Unlimited, December 22, 2002
(www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,864336,00.html). Sampson is the author of The Seven Sisters (New York: Bantam Books, 1976), which deals with Big Oil and the Middle East. Dan Morgan and David B. Ottaway write: "Officials of several major firms said they were taking care to avoid- ing playing any role in the debate in Washington over how to proceed on Iraq. 'There's no real upside for American oil companies to take a very ag- gressive stance at this stage. There'll be plenty of time in the future,' said James Lucier, an oil analyst with Prudential Securities." ("In Iraqi War Sce- nario, Oil Is Key Issue," Washington Post, September 15, 2002, p. A-l. For MSNBC, John W. Schoen writes: "So far, U.S. oil companies have been mum on the subject of the potential spoils of war." ("Iraqi oil, Ameri- can bonanza?," November 1 1 , 2002; www.msnbc.com/news/824407.asp?0bl=-0)
Daniel Yergin, "A Crude View of the Crisis in Iraq," Washington Post, De- cember 8, 2002, Page B-l . Yergin's book The Prize. The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991) won the Pulitzer Prize.
William D. Nordhaus, "Iraq: The Economic Consequences of War," New York Review of Books, December 5, 2002
(www.nybooks.com/articles/15850). See also a more extensive piece by Nordhaus, "The Economic Consequences of a War with Iraq," October 29, 2002, (www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/iraq.pdf); and George L. Perry, "The War on Terrorism, the World Oil Market and the U.S. Economy," Analysis
Paper #7, America's Response to Terrorism (rev. November 28, 2001) (www.brookingsinstitution.org/dybdocroot/views/papers/perry/200 1 1 024. ht m).
81 Robert J. Samuelson, "The Economic Impact of War," Newsweek, Decem- ber 2, 2002.
82 Quoted by Jay Bookman, "The presidents real goal in Iraq," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 29, 2002 (www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/29bookman.html).
83 Akiva Eldar, "They're jumping in head first," Ha 'aretz, September 30, 2002 (www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=214159).
For a summary of some of the non-democratic solutions the U.S. govern- ment is contemplating for postwar Iraq (including the installation of Jorda- nian Prince Hassan as king), see Conn Hallinan, "Favored Post- Saddam Leaders Belie Bush's Democracy Rhetoric," Foreign Policy in Focus, No- vember 26, 2002 (www.foreignpolicy-
infocus.org/commentary/2002/021 linvasion.html); and Brian Whitaker, "Jordan prince touted to succeed Saddam," The Guardian, July 19, 2002 (www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4464346,00.html).
84 Todd S. Purdum, Patrick E. Tyler, "Top Republicans Break With Bush on Iraq Strategy," New York Times, August 16, 2002 (www.rider.edu/users/phanc/courses/350-
web/mideast/iraq/topGOPbreakwGWBreiraq.htm); Zbigniew Brzezinski, "If We Must Fight Washington Post, August 18, 2002, p. B07 (www.rider.edu/users/phanc/courses/350-web/mideast/iraq/brzezinski.htm). "'Mark Danner, "The Straggles of Democracy and Empire," New York Times, October 10, 2002
(www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/politics/1010empire.htm).
86 Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz, "Making the World Safer for Business: Instability and aggression are regarded as a threat to the global stability upon which U.S. markets depend," Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1999 (www.diaspora- net.org/food4thought/layneschwarz.htm).
87 Stratfor, "U.S. Could Become Mired in Iraq Occupation," December 30, 2002 (http://world- analysis.laccesshost.com/stratfor2.html).
88 Christopher Layne, "The Power Paradox: History teaches that holding a monopoly on might — as the United States now does — is likely to provoke a backlash," Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2002.
89 Owen Harries, "The Anglosphere Illusion," National Interest, 63 (Spring 2001).
90 Rowan Scarborough, "U.S. ability to fight two wars doubted," Washington Times, December 25, 2002, A-l, A-9.
91 Robert Smith Thompson, A Time for War. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Path to Pearl Harbor (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1991), p. 379; and Bruce M. Russet, No Clear and Present Danger. A Skeptical View of the United States Entry into World War II (New York: Harp er Torchbooks, 1972), pp. 53f.
92 Joseph Sobran, "The Jewish Establishment," Sobran 's, September, 1995, p. 4. Similarly, Philip Weiss, writing in the New York Observer, points out: "You don't see The Times pussyfooting when it comes to the anti-Castro lobby or the National Rifle Association, two other powerful special-interest groups. When they muscle the system, we read faintly sinister accounts of the Arlington, Va., headquarters for the gun lobby and the bland, alien Wayne LaPierre, or hysterical interviews with nutso Castrohaters on Eighth Street in Miami.... [However,] one of the difficulties about discussing this question [Jewish influence] is that the mainstream media refuse to address it directly; its considered too sensitive." ("Holy or Unholy, Jews and Right in an Alliance," New York Observer, September 19, 2002; www.observer.com/pages/story. asp?ID=6336) For the power of American Jewish groups in silencing criticism of Israel, see Alexander Cochburn, "Is- rael and 'Anti-Semitism'," Counterpunch, May 16, 2002 (www.counterpunch.org/cockburn0516.html).
93 Robert Fisk, "The Coming Firestorm," May 27, 2002 (www.counterpunch.org/fisk0527.html).
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
The Revisionist Method Applied to the History of World War III
By Robert Faurisson
The U.S. government considers itself in a state of world- wide war against what it calls international terrorism. It entered into war against Iraq because, according to them, Saddam Hus- sein had weapons of mass destruction which threatened the United States. In support of this charge, the Americans have not, up to now, provided any real proof but only fallacious demonstrations.
Certain observers think that this absence of real evidence must embarrass at the same time the White House and those who, in the international community, have made chorus with George W. Bush and Tony Blair to assure us that Saddam Hus- sein had such weapons. These observers are mistaken. They ig- nore the history of war propaganda. They should consult the re- visionist authors on this subject. They would learn whereas, for the general public taken as a whole, the best proof of the exis- tence of these weapons is precisely that one finds neither any trace of it, nor proof.
Lies of the Past
Let us recall the witch trials, the so-called "Nazi war crime" trials and the court cases brought against the revisionists.
In centuries passed, in particular from 1450 to 1650, but also towards the end of the 1 8th century, if we have to believe some ecclesiastical courts and university scientists, there were sixty places on a woman's body where traces of intercourse with the Devil could be detected. However, other courts made-up of no less scholarly minds determined that, in spite of the precise de- tails brought by these experts, the best proof on the matter lay in the fact that the Devil had erased all traces of his activity; if not, they put forward, it would not have been the Devil.
In the last century, especially since 1945-1946, with the show trials at Nuremberg, then from that time on ceaselessly conducted trials — to this day! — against "camp guards", "war criminals", "collaborators" and, lastly, during legal actions brought against revisionists, one observed a similar phenome- non with the alleged genocide of Jews and the alleged Nazi homicidal gas chambers. The know-it-alls initially sustained that, considering the abundance of evidence and witnesses, it was enough to affirm that these horrors were "facts of common knowledge" (Article 2 1 of the Charter of the International Mili- tary Tribunal at Nuremberg). The other learned ones neverthe- less wanted to carry out in their work a demonstration, but it has finally come out from this work that, according to these ex- perts themselves, one could not, when all is said and done, dis- cover more than "beginnings of proofs", accompanied by testi- monies that should be taken with caution (the case of Jean- Claude Pressac, for example, author of a bulky work, in Eng- lish, devoted to the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and the case of Robert Jan van Pelt, author of two books on the subject). Lastly, the most cunning have chosen to affirm: "Everyone knows that the Nazis destroyed these gas chambers and system- atically eliminated all the witnesses"; the declaration, this time, emanating from Simone Veil (France-Soir Magazine, May 7, 1983, p.47) who made us thus understand that Hitler would not
have been Hitler if he had left the smallest trace of his gigantic crime. In fact, in the millions of documents left behind by the new Satan, one will find not even a single order to kill the Jews, no plan to exterminate millions of them (including in the report of a certain meeting held in Berlin- Wannsee), no instruc- tion on how to physically eliminate the Jews (including in the case of Einsatzgruppen) , no trace of a budget for so vast an en- terprise, not a single execution gas van nor a single execution gas chamber, if not Potemkin's theatrically grotesque gas chambers, awkwardly "reconstructed" after the war. Such au- thority as that most learned of the experts, a Jewish Master by the name of Raul Hilberg, finished, in a sigh of despair, by ex- plaining that the formidable slaughter had taken place thanks to "an incredible meeting of minds, a consensus-mind reading by a far-flung bureaucracy," of course the German bureaucracy. More diabolic than Beelzebub, Adolf Hitler had not been satis- fied to wipe out all evidence of the crime spree but, to better mislead the world, he left evidence intended to make people be- lieve that he had never wanted to exterminate the Jews. To take only three examples, first, he had granted a safe life to millions of them; then, as the documents prove, he had not sought "to solve the Jewish question in Europe", but to find a "final terri- torial solution" (the Madagascar plan or a similar plan); finally, he made his military courts shoot Germans who were found to be guilty of murdering a Jew. And so on. As for the magic gas chambers, he made them disappear so well that nobody could take up the challenge of the revisionists demanding that one show them or, at the very least, either describe or draw a pic- ture of the crime weapon and that one explain how these chemical slaughterhouses could function without killing the personnel in charge of clearing the gas chambers of the thou- sands of corpses, highly cyanided and thus rendered untouch- able. Thus the impossibility where the Jews are to prove their main accusation confirms the fully diabolic character of Adolf Hitler.
The Lie of Today
At the beginning of 21st century, it seems that we are re- playing the same scenario with the weapons of mass destruction of Saddam Hussein. I say well: "it seems," because it should be stressed here the difference in size. While intercourse with the Devil was physically impossible and the Nazi gas chamber was chemically inconceivable, it should be recognized that the terri- fying weapons of Saddam Hussein are, in theory, perfectly pos- sible, from the point of view of physics and chemistry; they are all the more possible since his accusers, starting with Ariel Sharon, are themselves in possession of a huge number of the same but under the innocent name of "weapons of deterrence."
The Eternal Big Fat Lie
In times of war, all political regimes, whatever they may be, that of Saddam Hussein just like that of G.W. Bush, use the coarsest of lies. To launch a country into a war or to maintain the war fervor or to justify a military crusade afterwards, only
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the good old big lie will speak to the crowd. A clever lie or a newly invented lie will not seal the deal. There exist recipes to provoke a crowd to indignation, anger, the desire to fight and to arouse, at least temporarily, the desire to engage heart and soul into the war cause. The politician who has experience handling the masses knows the virtue of over-simplification which ulti- mately consists in fictitious touching on the themes: "I love you; you love me!" or: "I am good, you are good and the others are vicious." The televangelist intones: "God is love, God is with us and He is against the foul wretches." The first weapon of the ordinary con artist is not the ingeniousness of his swindle but the ability to gain sympathy when approaching his victim and to hold him to the simplest dialogue. Among the leaders of a country in times of war, one always finds the traits and eva- sions of the politician, the televangelist and the swindler. From this point of view, in the 20th century, Franklin D. Roosevelt will perhaps be known as the master of duplicity among the warmongers. Will Bush outdo him?
The Comfort of Credulity
The perfect crime leaves no trace, no proof. In the same way, here the perfect accusation is not based on any verifiable proof. The war propagandist knows this. It will be sufficient for him to launch the never ending atrocity stories about numerous accounts of the adversary which he will most plainly describe as spending its time killing babies, using invisible weapons, op- erating corpse factories located near mass graves. These ac- counts will seduce only if they are not accompanied by some hard evidence or at least if they are only flanked by "clues", "testimonies" or references to unidentified "sources." Hard evi- dence presents the disadvantage of restraining imagination and passion. Vague clues have the advantage of giving the impulse to the fevered imagination. As for testimonies, they are touch- ing to sensitive souls, especially if they are accompanied by tears or scenes of fainting (a specialty of the Israeli witnesses). A gratuitous and stereotyped slander will make the deal better than one with detailed accusations and supporting evidence. The recipe of choice is that of a genuine photograph accompa- nied by a false caption; for example, the photograph will show bodies but the caption will speak about those killed, those mur- dered, those exterminated. The ideal witness provides no fur- ther information on the crime other than vague details, which allows those who grant him faith to build the decor with his imagination fantasy, and to construct the scene of the crime to his own liking. Without any difficulty and as if on a flying car- pet, this last one flies away then in his mind towards Ausch- witz, Timisoara or the hospital of Kuwait City where, according to father Bush, the Iraqis had, in 1991, disconnected the incuba- tors of Kuwaiti premature babies. The one who listens to or sees this witness feels delightfully flooded with compassion; he enjoys himself; all at the same time he feeds his shameful crav- ing for the spectacle of horror, his need to hate and his yearning for the finer feelings. Thus the seasoned propagandist leaves to those he has deceived the illusion of some personal freedom.
The Need to Believe
The crowd is simple and one will never quite explain the charm that can pepper the simple-minded with elementary rea-
soning and, in particular, with circular reasoning. It will be said to him, for example, that the proof that one is malicious, is that the latter is malicious. The proof that the latter is malicious is that he does not love us. If he does not love us, it is that he is barbarian. If he is barbarian, it is that he does not see things as we see them. This malicious barbarian belongs to another world, which can only be an inferior people. If they are an infe- rior people, it follows that we have a superior culture. Here is what assures us that, if we are good, our enemy is fundamen- tally bad. The circle is complete: it is perfect. Any other proof is superfluous and, just as the white horse of Henri IV is white because it is white, in the same way it should not be wondered how the mass murder attributed to Hitler was technically possi- ble; "It was technically possible given that it took place." This brilliant stupidity was uttered, in a joint declaration, by Leon Poliakov, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Fernand Braudel and about thirty French historians when in 1978-1979 I had to some ex- tent requested of these people to explain how the gassings of Jews, such as they have been described to us, could have been technically possible (Le Monde, February 21, 1979, p.23). As for the weapons of Saddam Hussein, if they are not in his coun- try, then they must be elsewhere. If they are not in Iraq, it is that they are in Syria. Or in Iran. Or on the Moon. The Devil knows where. But does it matter? The masses have a short memory. They will not go and demand accountability of the li- ars. For them, with or without a weapon, with or without any proof, the crime of the defeated side remains the crime and the vanquished criminal, a criminal. The circular reasoning delight- fully finds its place in the cerebral convolutions of the simple- minded. It coils out there. Reptilian or not, isn't the brain a rela- tively soft, spongy, formless mass? Isn't the heart a pump which suctions in and pushes out without one thinking about it? Isn't the idleness voluptuous? The mental concentration, tiring? Effort of memory, painful? Then, why, in a consumer society, complicate one's life when it is sufficient enough to receive, to absorb, to regurgitate, to have a full belly and a brain full of air, to feel good hearted at the side of the winner killer!
The Third World War Recycles the Old Lies
American leaders never make an impression of having very much interest in nuance or detail. At least since 1898, they have, to justify their ceaseless military expeditions, employed the same inventions. Why would they change them? These in- ventions successfully covered the horrors which the boys ac- cumulated during the Second World War, throughout their war in Vietnam and at the time of twenty other military expeditions. These same deceptions were used to justify the masquerade of a trial at Nuremberg and are found again in the hideous holo- caustic propaganda whose American Jews were the champions. Very recently, the White House and its Judeo-Israeli cabal did nothing but recycle the most hackneyed machinations of war propaganda while creating and exploiting this fable about the weapons of mass destruction supposedly held by Saddam Hus- sein, who, it should be said in passing, moreover forgot, when the time came, to put them to use. Their second war against Iraq illustrated to the Americans the progress of their inventions in any field except, on one side, in the manufacture of the hor- rors loaned to the adversary and, on the other, in the manufac-
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ture of the supposed prowess of their soldiers. Their propa- ganda could change form but the content never varied. Inciden- tally we were entitled to the doubles of Saddam Hussein (six in all, of which none have been found up to now) and to the heroic account of pure fiction in the alleged rescue of the young sol- dier Jessica Lynch.
The revisionists have a chance. Over the new world war, their task will be easy. War propaganda will imperturbably re- main the same. Jean Norton Cru for the First World War and Paul Rassinier for the Second World War, to some extent, al- ready described to us the great impostures of this third world war. It should be enough to read these authors again. They have, if one dares say, recorded in advance the long-standing lies of Bush Sr., Bush Jr., Blair and Sharon. The third world war will be extremely different from the two great wars which
preceded it and it will innovate in many scientific fields, but its propaganda containing accounts of atrocities will continue to abide by the previously set standard. Coarse and heavily cyni- cal, it will continue to illustrate the wisdom of experience: in times of war fever, the charge which really carries the masses is that which is not accompanied by real evidence. The Ameri- cans will compensate that absence of real evidence with the montage-work of spin doctors, with the tomfoolery of Powell (putting on a show by waving in front of the cameras a tube of Iraqi poison), or still more by Hollywoodian frame-ups in the tradition of the Shoah Business and the Holocaust Industry.
Applied to the history of the third world war, the revisionist method will at least offer the advantage of flushing out these kinds of impostures.
©May 11,2003
Why the United States Rejects the International Criminal Court
By Dr. Dieter Bartling
The United States' rejection of the International Criminal Court (ICC), coupled with its demand for immunity for its military forces, has been received with disdain and outrage by most countries. It is astounding that the very country which created the League of Nations and United Nations — and which orchestrated the Nuremberg International Mili- tary Tribunal (IMT) along with its counterpart in Tokyo, presenting them to the world as a monumental judicial achievement — now refuses to participate in the ICC. What is the ICC, except an impartial and demilitarized IMT? What has driven the US to its present position? What are the reasons for its bitter resistance to international coopera- tion?
1. The Openly Discussed Reasons
1.1. The Arrogance of Power
The USA sees itself as the sole remaining superpower. As such, it is unwilling to give up a iota of its sovereignty to any international body, regardless of how congenial it might be. Its rationale is: "We did not fight so many bloody wars to be told by any third party, now that we are the big winners, what we can and can not do. That is not going to happen." Such reason- ing also explains its excessive use of the veto in the United Na- tions Security Council.
1 .2. American Troops Serve only under American Com- manders
It is axiomatic for the US that its troops are never com- manded by foreigners. For Americans, this 'self-evident truth' is not a recent development, as it dates to their Revolution. Once they had won independence from Great Britain, they vowed to always command their own troops directly, as a mat- ter of principle. They conceive of 'loaning out' their soldiers to foreign powers or subordinating them to foreign control in any way (including the jurisdiction of an international military court) as regression to feudalistic conditions. This attitude of course greatly complicates all international military coopera- tion, but the Americans dismiss this with a shrug of the shoul- ders. And so, when one points out to the Americans that if all
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countries followed their example there could be no such thing as a combined multinational military force, they reply that the United States are not just any country. In short, they see them- selves as a unique people with a unique system of laws and a unique nationality, forged by countless bloody struggles. In times of war they field the most powerful military force and so, as the classic Roman expression goes, "Quod licet Jovi, non li- cet bovi" (What is allowable for Jupiter is not allowable for the ox.) In other words: whatever rules exist apply to others, not the US. In their opinion, that is really all that needs to be said. Again, this rationale explains their abuse of veto power in the UN.
1.3. The US Demands for Unhampered Freedom of Action in its War against Terrorism
The former Inspector General of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), General Naumann, recently pointed out that an- titerrorist operations are legitimate "only if carried out under a UN mandate or with the invitation of the concerned country."1 It is obvious that neither of these conditions prevailed in the in- vasion of Iraq. Under no circumstances is the USA willing for its military operations to be dependent on an uncertain majority in the UN Security Council, and this is true whether the opera- tions are defensive, offensive or preemptive. The US finds the Security Council useful for vetoing actions and resolutions
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which are unacceptable to the US; but where its own military actions are concerned, it prefers to act independently. An analogous situation exists with the International Criminal Court (ICC), an international court designed to deal with aggression and war crimes. The United States do not want to be officially branded as an "Aggressor Nation" for attacking Iraq or other nations. Similar considerations have led Israel and China to re- ject the ICC. The US preference to continue under the rules governing relations between enemy states also reflects this po- sition: half a century after the end of World War II, the US re- tains the right to intervene in Germany in case developments occur there which it might find objectionable. Thus US rejec- tionism is a combination of (1) arrogance of power and (2) safeguarding a major power's freedom to act unilaterally.
1 .4. The US Wants to Protect its Troops from "Politi- cally Motivated Punitive Measures"
This is the most blatant argument for the US policy of rejec- tion, for it implies that the ICC would lend itself to political misuse and is therefore unqualified. This is most certainly not the case. One must assume that the ICC will be staffed with highly qualified jurists; it is in fact already so staffed. No, be- hind this argument are memories of its own "politically moti- vated war crimes prosecutions" which it carried out in the grossly unfair and legally questionable charges, procedures, and sentences of the military tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo. The Americans know perfectly well that in those trials the de- fense was held under extreme constraints in order to expedite "politically motivated war crimes prosecutions." The Ameri- cans are obviously afraid that their soldiers might receive the same treatment before the ICC, even though there are no rea- sons for such an assumption. The ICC would without doubt conduct its proceedings strictly according to international law. There is absolutely no reason to assume that it would constrain the defense as the US did at Nuremberg and Tokyo.
So much for the official and public reasons given by the US for its rejection of the ICC. Let us now consider another cate- gory of its reasons for rejection.
2. Reasons which Are Not Publicly Discussed
The ruling elite of the USA are all too familiar with the lack of discipline in their armed forces, a reflection of the widely disseminated lack of proper conduct in their general population. The American rulers can never be confident of discipline and conduct in the military ranks. They are very worried that in fu- ture wars, as well as in the present war against terrorism, their forces will commit — indeed, have already committed — massive violations of human rights.
History suggests that these fears are not unfounded. Begin- ning with the genocidal Indian wars and continuing to the pre- sent, the US military have conducted themselves with little re- gard for the rules of civilized warfare. Consider the frontier slogan "the only good Indian is a dead one" and the battle of Wounded Knee. During the American Civil War, the US ap- plied the genocidal strategy of attacking undefended civilian populations of the Confederacy, ushering in the modern con- cept of total war. "My Lai," "Free Fire Zones" and the Phoenix Program in Vietnam suggest that this strategy still prevails. If
atrocities committed under these strategies should be brought before an international war crimes court, the US would be greatly embarrassed. We must realize that American atrocities have not been restricted to isolated incidents. They have in fact been extremely wide spread; one could say, the rule rather than the exception. The best evidence for this conclusion comes from American sources.
2.1. The Observations of Charles A. Lindbergh
Lindbergh, who won world renown in 1927 by crossing the Atlantic in the "Spirit of St. Louis," was an outspoken opponent of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and consequently har- assed throughout his lifetime. When the US entered World War II in December 1941, Lindbergh was not allowed to serve in the US Air Corps. He was, however, allowed to serve his country as technical consultant and test pilot. Beginning in 1944, he was assigned to both the Pacific and European Theatres of Op- eration in this capacity. In 1970, he published his diary, The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh. They make clear why the US has misgivings about the conduct of its troops and the charges which could ensue from an international war crimes court. Following are a few quotations:
21st May 1944 (New Guinea, page 813f.)
General Arnold came with a jeep to take me over to see General (Robert B.) McClure. Another tour of the beach- head with General McClure, this time to see the coast posi- tions. [...] The Army engineers are putting in a road through this area — still in rough condition but passable for our jeep with all four wheels pushing. Several places along it, Japanese skulls had been set up on posts [...]. " 21s' June 1944 (p. 853f.)
"General's account of killing a Japanese soldier: A technical sergeant in an advanced area some weeks ago complained that he had been with combat forces in the Pa- cific for over two years and never had a chance to do any fighting himself-that he would like the chance to kill at least one Jap before he went home. He was invited to go out on a patrol into enemy territory.
The sergeant saw no Jap to shoot, but members of the patrol took a prisoner. The Jap prisoner was brought to the sergeant with the statement that here was his opportunity to kill a Jap.
'But I can 't kill that man! He 's a prisoner. He 's defense- less. '
'Hell, this is war. We '11 show you how to kill the son of a bitch. '
One of the patrol members offered the Jap a cigarette and a light, and as he started to smoke an arm was thrown around his head and his throat 'slit from ear to ear. '
The entire procedure was thoroughly approved by the general giving the account. "2 26th June 1944 (pp. 856f.)
"The talk drifted to prisoners of war and the small per- centage of Japanese soldiers taken prisoner. 'Oh, we could take more if we wanted to, ' one of the officers replied. 'But our boys don 't like to take prisoners. '
'We had a couple of thousand down at — , but only a hundred or two were turned in. They had an accident with
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the rest. It doesn't encourage the rest to surrender when they hear of their buddies being marched out on the flying field and machine guns turned loose on them. '
'Or after a couple of them get shot with their hands up in the air, ' another officer chimed in.
'Well, take the — th. They found one of their men pretty badly mutilated. After that, you can bet they didn 't capture very many Japs. '
The talk drifted to air combats and parachute jumps. All of the pilots insisted it was proper to shoot enemy airmen coming down in their parachutes. "3 28th June 1944 (p. 859)
"I am shocked at the attitude of our American troops. They have no respect for death, the courage of an enemy soldier, or many of the ordinary decencies of life. They think nothing whatever of robbing the body of a dead Jap and call him a 'son of a bitch ' while they do so. I said during a discussion that regardless of what the Japs did, I did not see how we could gain anything or claim that we represented a civilized state if we killed them by torture. 'Well, some of our boys do kick their teeth in, but they usually kill them first, ' one of the officers said in half apology. " 13th July 1944 (p. 875)
"It was freely admitted that some of our soldiers tortured Jap prisoners and were as cruel and barbaric at times as the Japs themselves. Our men think nothing of shooting a Japa- nese prisoner or a soldier attempting to surrender. They treat the Jap with less respect than they would give to an animal, and these acts are condoned by almost everyone. " 24th July 1944 (p. 882-884)
"Going down the hill, we came to a pass with the bodies of a Japanese officer and ten or twelve soldiers [...]. And as one of the officers with me said, 'I see that the infantry have been up to their favorite occupation, ' i.e., knocking out all the teeth that contain gold fillings for souvenirs.
[...In the bomb crater] bottom were lying the bodies of five or six Jap soldiers, partly covered with a truckload of garbage our troops had dumped on top of them. [...]
We climbed down the ladder past the bodies of more soldiers and picked our way over to the entrance of one of the caves. This is the cave where the Japs reportedly tried to surrender and were told by our troops to 'get the hell back in and fight it out. 11th August 1944 (pp. 90 If.)
"A major says that American soldiers never meet the higher type of Australian girl because our men have carried on in such a manner that to be seen with an American uni- form in Sydney practically identifies a girl as a whore. "
'"The officers wanted some prisoners to question but couldn 't get any until they offered two weeks ' leave in Syd- ney for each one turned in. Then they got more than they could handle. '
'But when they cut out giving leave, the prisoners stopped coming in. The boys just said they couldn 't catch any. '
'The Aussies are still worse. You remember the time they had to take those prisoners south by plane? One of the pi- lots told me they just pushed them out over the mountains and reported that the Japs committed hara-kiri on the way. '
'Well, you remember when our troops captured that Jap hospital? There wasn't anyone alive in it when they got through. "'
30 August 1944 (Tarawa, p. 915)
"the general desire was to kill and not take prisoners. Even when prisoners were taken, the naval officer said, they were lined up and asked which ones could speak English. Those who were able to speak English were taken for ques- tioning. The others 'simply weren 't taken. 4th Sep 1944 (Kwajalein, p. 917)
"One of the doctors on the island tells me that some of the Marines dug up Japanese bodies to get gold-filled teeth for souvenirs. "
In Europe after the war, Lindbergh wrote the following: 18th May 1945 (p. 947, near Munich)
"The fact is that our American soldiers are out for loot wherever they can get it. [...] To destroy and loot is consid- ered entirely proper and the right thing to do as far as the G.I. is concerned. " 19th May 1945 (p. 953)
"Here, our soldiers use the term 'liberate ' to describe the method of obtaining loot. Anything taken from an enemy home or person is liberated' in the language of the G.I. Leica cameras are 'liberated' (probably the most desired item); guns, food, art. Anything taken without being paid for is liberated. ' A soldier who rapes a German woman has liberated' her. "
20 May 1945 (p. 955, near Munich)
"[...] a young medical officer [...] tells me how our people have been making the Germans talk when they at first refuse to do so-solitary confinement on bread and wa- ter; and, if that doesn 't work, solitary confinement with no bread and water. Our people had become alarmed at the condition of some of their prisoners, and he had been called in to examine them. " 24 May 1945 (p. 961, Heilbronn)
"One of the officers (American) tells me that [German] prisoners are in the open day and night, rain or shine, and with very little food. "
8th June 1945 (p. 980f, between Nuremberg and Leipzig)
"Stop at a battalion ordnance station in a small village for an extra tire. Lunch with the local officers. They talk of the S.S. troops they have in their 'cage. '
"The last time I saw them, they were sweeping up the streets with their hands, ' said one of the officers.
'Do you mean literally or figuratively? ' I asked.
The officers seemed to hate Germans in general, and the S.S. above all else. 'We rotate being in charge of the cage, ' a young lieutenant told me. 'The fellows try to outdo each other in handling the S.S. '
'For instance? ' I asked.
'Oh, one of the best is to make them stretch out their arms and lean against a wall. They start falling down after about half an hour. Then we say, 'S.S. goot?' And if they answer, 'S.S. goot, ' we make them do it again. "' 9th June 1945 (p. 989f., Dessau)
"All of the ex-prisoners of war seemed to me surpris- ingly well fed— both those going into and these coming from
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the Russian area. Faces showed the signs of years of captiv- ity; there was no doubt about that. But I did not see the signs of starvation that I expected after reading the ac- counts of the way these people have been treated. [...] There is an abundance of food in the American Army, and few men seem to care how hungry the German children are outside the door. "
10th June 1945 (pp. 992f.), Nordhausen
"Since it was still daylight we decided to go to the un- derground factory before looking for our billets. [...] To reach the entrance we had to drive through Camp Dora, an ex-German prison camp from which a large percentage of the factory's workers were obtained. [...] Their clothing was dirty but seemed adequate for the season. From their bodies and faces one would judge that they were not too badly fed. "
11th June 1945 (p. 997, Nordhausen)
"A long line of such in- cidents parades before my mind; the story of our Ma- rines firing on unarmed Japanese survivors who swam ashore on the beach at Midway; the accounts of our machine-gunning prisoners on a Hollandia airstrip; of the Australians pushing cap- tured Japanese soldiers out of the transport planes which were taking them south over the New Guinea mountains ('the Aussies re- ported them as committing hara-kiri or 'resisting"); of the shinbones cut, for letter openers and pen trays, from newly killed Japanese bodies on Noemfoor; of the young pilot who was 'going to cream that Jap hospital one of these days '; of American soldiers poking through the mouths of Japanese corpses
for gold-filled teeth ('the infantry 's favorite occupation '); of Jap heads buried in anthills 'to get them clean for souve- nirs '; "
Such was Charles Lindbergh's testimony.
2.2. Lindbergh's Reports Confirmed by other Allied
War Correspondents
A. Report by edgar L. Jones4
The American war correspondent Edgar L. Jones wrote the
following summarization in February 1946, shortly after the
end of World WarH:
"What kind of war do civilians suppose we fought, any- way? We shot prisoners in cold blood, wiped out hospitals,
Defense worker N. Nickolson writes to her sweetheart thanking him for his letter and "souvenir. " This skull of a Japanese soldier bears the inscription: "Here is a good Jap - a dead one!"
strafed lifeboats, killed or mistreated enemy civilians, fin- ished off the enemy wounded, tossed the dying into a hole with the dead, and in the Pacific boiled the flesh off enemy skulls to make table ornaments for sweethearts, or carved their bones into letter openers "
b. Excerpts from John W. Dower 's War Without Mercy5
"The Japanese accused the Allies of mutilating Japa- nese war dead for souvenirs, attacking and sinking hospital ships, shooting sailors who had abandoned ship and pilots who had bailed out, killing wounded soldiers on the battle- field, and torturing and executing prisoners-all of which did take place. " (pp. 61f.)
On page 63 Dower relates the command of an Australian
major general to shoot wounded Japanese prisoners. "But sir, they are wounded and want to surrender," protested a colonel. "You heard me, Colonel," said the general; "I want no prison- ers. Shoot them all." And they were all shot.
Also on page 63, he quotes the memoirs of the American professor of biology E. B. Sled- ge:6
"Sledge, deeply religious and patriotic, watched his comrades go over the edge: severing the hand of a dead Japanese as a battlefield tro- phy, 'harvesting gold teeth' from the enemy dead, urinat- ing in a corpse's upturned mouth, shooting a terrified old Okinawan woman and casually dismissing her as 'just an old gook woman who wanted me to put her out of her misery. ' " On page 65 Dower describes an even more gruesome scene, from page 120 of Sledge's memoirs:
"In the diary of a sea- man, published after the war, we find tucked away in an en- try in July 1944 the casual mention of a Marine who had al- ready collected seventeen gold teeth, the last from a Japa- nese soldier on Saipan who was wounded and still moving his hands. Sledge, in his memoir of Pelehu and Okinawa, records an even more excruciating scene of a wounded Japanese thrashing an the ground as a Marine slit his cheeks open and carved his gold-crowned teeth out with a kabar. [...]
In April 1943, the Baltimore Sun ran a story about a lo- cal mother who had petitioned authorities to permit her son to mail her an ear he had cut off a Japanese soldier in the South Pacific. She wished to nail it to her front door for all
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to see. On the very same day, the Detroit Free Press deemed newsworthy the story of an underage youth who had enlisted and 'bribed' his chaplain not to disclose his age by promising him the third pair of ears he collected.
Scalps, bones, and skulls were somewhat rarer trophies, but the latter two achieved special notoriety in both the United States and Japan when an American serviceman sent President Roosevelt a letter opener made from the bone of a dead Japanese (the president refused it), and Life published a full-page photograph of an attractive blonde posing with a Japanese skull she had been sent by her fiance in the Pa- cific. " 1
And in the footnote on page 330:
"The Life photo appeared in the issue for May 22, 1944, 35, with the caption 'Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank-you note for the Jap skull he sent her. " On page 66, Dower describes a truly horrendous atrocity:
"A U.S. submarine commander who sank a Japanese transport and then spent upwards of an hour killing the hundreds and possibly thousands of Japanese survivors with his deck guns, for example, was commended and pub- licly honored by his superiors even though he included an account of the slaughter in his official report. " Dower provides additional information concerning this in- cident in his footnote 94 (page 330) to a book by Clay Blair:8
"The submarine was the Wahoo, and the episode oc- curred off the north coast of New Guinea in January 1943. One of the officers on the Wahoo, recalling the occasion, spoke of the commander 's 'overwhelming biological hatred of the enemy'; [...] The submarine commander, following this mission, was awarded both the Navy Cross and, from General MacArthur, an Army Distinguished Service Cross."
The mass murderer was not only tolerated, he was deco- rated! From p. 67:
"An equally grim butchery took place an March 4, 1943, the day after the three-day battle of the Bismarck Sea, when U.S. and Australian aircraft systematically searched the seas for Japanese survivors and strafed every raft and lifeboat they found. "
Such events were by no means kept secret, as he points out on page 67. In its issue of 15th March 1943, Time Magazine stated:
"low-flying fighters turned lifeboats towed by motor barges, and packed with Jap survivors, into bloody sieves. " Likewise, no attempt was made to hide the fact that very
few prisoners were taken; on the contrary. Dower writes on
page 68:
"An article published by a U.S. Army captain shortly af- ter the war, for example, carried the proud title 'The 41st Didn 't Take Prisoners. ,[9] The article dealt with the 41st Di- vision under MacArthur 's command, nicknamed 'the Butch- ers ' in Tokyo Rose 's propaganda broadcasts, and charac- terized the combat in the Pacific in typical terms as 'a mer- ciless struggle, with no holds barred.
Obviously a colonel in the US Army was proud of these atrocities and did not hesitate to publicize them.
Even the highest ranking American officers incited murder- ous frenzy in a very primitive manner. On page 71 Dower
quotes the Australian general Blarney who addressed his troops, as well as the New York Times (9th Jan 1943, p. 1) as follows: "Your enemy is a curious race — a cross between the human being and the ape. [...] You know that we have to exterminate these vermin [...]. We must exterminate the Japanese. [...] The Jap is a little barbarian. [...] Our troops have the right view of the Japs. They regard them as vermin. "
Neither President Roosevelt, after receiving a letter opener made from the bones of a Japanese soldier, nor the American public, after publication of the photo in Life Magazine of the Japanese skull sent by a Marine to his sweetheart, or after the reports by Charles Lindbergh, Edgar Jones, or John Dower, ex- pressed disapproval of the beastly conduct of US troops. Most significantly, they undertook no measures to guard against repetitions of these atrocities.
2.3. Keeping Prisoners in Cages is Customary Procedure for US Troops
The caged and tortured SS men described by Lindbergh, quoted in 2.1. above, are not the only prisoners of the US who have been treated this way In the US interrogation center at Guantanamo, Cuba, Taliban prisoners are subjected to the same barbarous confinement, which is broadcast on worldwide tele- vision.
Perhaps the best known instance of caging prisoners is the notorious case of the world famous American poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972), a supporter of Mussolini who lived in Italy during World War II and broadcast polemics against Roosevelt and the Jews. Captured by the Americans in Genoa in August 1945, he was first placed under house arrest. His subsequent treatment is described by Charles Norman in his book Ezra Pound: 10
"Then he was taken to a military prison compound near Pisa. This was the Disciplinary Training Center of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. " The word "training" is an American euphemism. Pound's lawyer, Julien Cornell, made the following notes after his first conversation with the poet in the Federal prison at Washington, DC on 20th November 1945 (p. 397):
" 'At Pisa, Pound was confined in a cage made of air- strip, and in solitary confinement^ Cage was in yard with little shelter from sun or rain. Bright lights on stockade shone at night. Two guards outside at all times. Slept on cement floor with 6 blankets. Can for toilet. Allowed no reading matter except Confucius he was working on. In- communicado. Was told nobody knew where he was.
'After 3 weeks, Pound collapsed. Taken out of cage and put in tent. Partial amnesia. Claustrophobia. Not allowed to talk to other prisoners (told this was ordered by Washing- ton). "
Norman continues:
"Some of the 'trainees ' were destined for federal pris- ons in the United States, some were hanged at Aversa, and others were shot down in attempts to escape. Pound was the only civilian prisoner. The commandant during his incar- ceration was Lt. Col. John L. Steele, whose name occurs in The Pisan Cantos, as do the names of fellow prisoners. A medical section attendant has recalled seeing, one May
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night, the blue light of acetylene torches reinforcing the cage that was to hold Ezra Pound. It was on the extreme end of a row of such cages. The excuse for this, and for the cage itself was the fear that Fascists might attempt to res- cue him. No such attempt was ever made, and it was an in- credible barbarity for Americans to conceive and execute. " The government intended to charge Pound with high trea- son. Instead, they declared him insane and imprisoned him for almost 13 years in St. Elizabeth Hospital, Washington DC. Thanks to international pressure, he was finally released in 1959. He returned to Italy where he lived with his daughter at Brunnenberg Castle in Meran until his death in Venice on 1st November 1972.
2.4. The Human Vultures of Hiroshima
After the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan capitulated on 15th August 1945. In the Fall of 1945, Air Corps General Anderson assigned a camera team of the US Bomber Command to fly to Japan and document on location the total defeat of Japan "before the grass grows green again." The documen- tary film had the working title "De- feated Japan." The camera team was supplied with the best equip- ment and personnel available and even given a special train in which it traveled throughout Japan.
The head of the team was Lt. Daniel McGovern, who had worked as camera man on "The Memphis Belle," a documentary about an American bomber air- plane. For a short time, the com- manding officer of this project had been Ronald Reagan. McGovern' s camera team shot a total of 100,000 feet of color film, 9 hours on Hi- roshima and Nagasaki and 30 hours on the rest of Japan. The scenes depicted are so horrible that the
Pentagon classified the entire film as "Top Secret" in 1946.
In 1983, on the initiative of Japan, the Pentagon finally re- leased it. Robert Harris of the BBC then edited the film into a movie which includes interviews of contemporary witnesses, including Daniel McGovern. The title of the Harris film is "Hollywood Goes to Hiroshima — A Film of the Japanese Holocaust, 1945." The German version was broadcast by Wal- ter Halfer of West German TV Broadcasting Company. The following passages are quoted and retranslated from the Ger- man version (the author has a video copy.)
(Narrator): "In that winter of 1945/46, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were afflicted with sickness and suffering to an extent which science has never before witnessed. For the scientific researcher, the atom bomb survivors represented ideal objects for study. Their wounds were minutely exam- ined and photographed. Among the researchers was a Brit- ish mission, which observed that the number of dead in Hi-
Ezra Pound
roshima alone was greater than the total number of bomb- ing victims during the Battle of Britain. "
Not all of those rummaging through the rubble of Hi- roshima were scientists, as Daniel McGovern will always remember.
(Daniel McGovern): "There was one thing which I found so disgusting that I never wanted to talk about it. A human form was rummaging about with two leather pouches strapped to its waist. One pouch was for silver, the other for gold. This creature was prying silver and gold from the skulls of rotting corpses. I saw it with my own eyes. "
(Narrator) "And what was this creature? " (McGovern): " An Army officer. " (Narrator): " An American officer?" (McGovern): "Yes, American. "
(Narrator): "He was robbing gold and silver from the corpses? "
(McGovern): "Yes. It was the most repulsive thing I saw there. If I had been in charge I would have had him shot. "
2.5. In Vietnam, US Soldiers again Behaved Like Barbari- ans
Eddie Adams, who in 1968 made the famous photograph of a Vietnamese police official execut- ing a Vietcong lieutenant with his revolver (for which he received the Pulitzer Prize), wrote the following for the US news magazine News- week:12
"There were things a hell of a lot worse that happened in Vietnam. We had pictures that we never released. There were pictures of Americans holding heads of Viet Cong they'd chopped off. I talked to one sol- dier who said, 'Oh, you should have been here a little while ago, you missed it. I cut me a head out of one of them Viet Cong. I just buried it. ' Very gruesome. But this is a war. People are dying, your friends are getting killed, people are blown away. There aren 't any rules. There aren 't any. " Such is the American concept of war: No rules.
2.6. The Barbarous Methods Used by US Forces During the German War Crimes Trials
In order to illustrate the conduct of the Americans in Ger- many, let me quote a few passages from the book by Friedrich Oscar, Uber Galgen wdchst kein Gras (No Grass Grows Over the Gallows).13
"On the 27th of January 1949, Senator William Longer introduced a resolution before the US Senate, recorded in the Congressional Record of the first session of the 81s' Congress. It is entitled American Military Justice: A Shame
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for All Americans ' and reads as follows:
"A two man civil commission, dispatched by Secretary of State Royall to gain an overview of the proceedings at Nur- emberg, returned to the US and reported that the following methods were used to force confessions from the accused: Kicks and blows which knocked out prisoners' teeth and fractured their chins; mock trials; solitary confinement; burning splinters shoved under their fingernails; deceptions by phony priests; extreme deprivation of food; broken promises of visits; and promises of release in return for col- laboration.
According to the Congressional Record for the Senate (Item No. 134 dated 26th July 1949, page 10397), Senator McCarthy delivered the following remarks in a major address. Here is a short extract from a long speech:14
"As Bishop Theophilus Wurm of Stuttgart, the aged leader of German Protestantism, said in a blistering state- ment issued to the press on the one-sidedness and the prob- lematic character of the methods used in the war crimes tri- als:
'Never will the people of the town of Schwabisch Hall, who in the nights heard the cries of pain of the tortured be- yond the prison walls, be made to believe that these investi- gators were servants of justice and not servants of re- venge.
Oscar's book is a veritable catalog of terrifying but well documented accounts of postwar American atrocities.
3. On Balance
We have seen that, in addition to avoiding "politically moti- vated criminal accusations" against American troops, there are other, stronger motives for Washington's rejection of the ICC. These are concerns that such accusations would expose numer- ous atrocities committed by members of the US armed forces. What can one expect from an army whose officers encourage their troops to do the following?
- Place the heads of dead enemies on stakes;
- Kill prisoners by cutting their throats;
- Machinegun large groups of prisoners;
- Shoot enemy soldiers who are in process of surrendering, with hands held high;
- Approve of "knocking off enemy pilots parachuting to earth;
- Capture an enemy hospital, then bomb and kill all the pa- tients;
- Condone plundering and desecrating the bodies of the dead;
- Barbarously torture prisoners, often to death;
- Pry out the gold filled teeth of dead and wounded prisoners;
- Send enemy prisoners back to their positions in order to shoot or burn them to death;
- Take prisoners only when rewarded with leave time;
- Routinely put wounded enemy to death;
- Excavate bodies of enemy soldiers so as to pry out gold filled teeth;
- Bury wounded enemy soldiers alive
- Impound prisoners in the open, without protection from the elements, and allow them to starve;
- Deliberately sink lifeboats filled with survivors of torpe- doed ships;
- Bury the skulls of enemy dead in ant beds to "polish" them before sending them home as souvenirs;
- Make letter openers from the bones of enemy dead;
- Lock prisoners in cages like gorillas and torment them;
- Proudly pose holding the severed heads of enemy soldiers;
- Cut out the hearts of fallen enemy soldiers;
- Shoot hundreds of survivors of sunken ships as they help- lessly swim or float;
- Extort confessions with beatings, burning splinters, fake tri- als, withholding promised religious visits, etc.;
- Rape and plunder civilian populations of conquered lands.
- What is one to think of an army if one of its officers ob- serves other officers going about like "human vultures" in the ruins of a devastated city, prying out gold filled teeth from decomposing corpses, and does not report such dese- crations?
There is little reason to expect that such an army, whose countless atrocities are catalogued by its own side, will show improvement in future. The American war correspondent Edgar L. Jones described this situation very succinctly: 15
"We Americans have the dangerous tendency to assume a 'holier than thou ' attitude toward other nations... We con- sider ourselves nobler than others, and consequently in a better position to decide what is right and what is wrong. When victors, we consider ourselves righteous in bringing our defeated enemies to trial for their crimes against hu- manity, but we should be realistic enough to perceive that if we had been defeated and tried before an international court we too would be found guilty of massive human rights violations. " (Retranslated)
When Jones asked an American colonel of infantry if he had addressed his battalion before battle, the colonel answered::16
"Yes, I gave them a lecture on the ethics of war. I told them that there are two kinds of ethics: one for us and one for the yellow bellied bastards on the other side. " (Retrans- lated)
This is the real motivation for American rejectionism. They assume and demand an ethic for themselves which is different from that of their enemies. This is the reason why they demand immunity from the International Criminal Court. If there were no special privileges for the US, Americans would present a miserable figure before the ICC. The US government would have to admit that it is unable or unwilling to instill proper dis- cipline in its armed forces, unable to guarantee that its forces will abide by the Geneva Convention and the Haag Protocol on Land Warfare. Such an admission is not in the interests of the US, who presumes to set an example for the world. The US has no choice except to hinder exposure with every means at its command.
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Notes
First published as "Warum Washington den ISG nicht mag", in Deittschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 50(3) (2002), pp. 11-17; translated by James Da- mon.
1 Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sunday Edition, 7.March .2002, pp. If.
2 Translator's Note: Norman Mailer describes killing prisoners and other atrocities in his novel The Naked and the Dead, published 1948. Based on his experiences in the Pacific, it depicts the plight of a young lieutenant caught between murderous, insubordinate enlisted men and a sinister senior officer who uses the men's depravity as a device for controlling them.
3 In this context it should be noted that Col. Howard A. Buechner, in his book Dachau. The Hour of the Avenger (Thunderbird Press, Inc., Metairic, Lou- isiana, USA, 1986) wrote laconically on p. XVII:
"According to Joseph Lawrence, author of Fighting Soldier [Fighting Soldier. The AFF in 1918, Colorado Associated University Press, 1986], it was common practice for American soldiers to shoot prisoners in WWI. "
On p. 104 of his book, Lawrence reports how he brought a wounded Ger- man prisoner of war to a U.S. field hospital, where an American physician told him: "Get him out and shoot him!"
4 Edgar L. Jones, "One war is enough!, " in The Atlantic Monthly, Febr. 1 946, pp. 48-53.
Faber and Faber, London-Boston 1986,, pp. 60-73 and 328-331. 6 With the old breed at Pelaliu and Okinawa, Presidio Press, 1981.
I New York Times, Aug. 10 and 14, 1944.
8 Silent Victory: The US Submarine War against Japan, Lippincott, 1975, pp. 384ff.
9 George S. Andrew, "The 41st didn't take prisoners," in Saturday Evening Post, July 27, 1 946, pp. 22ff.
10 The Macmillan Company, New York 1 960, pp. 396f.
I I This was the infamous "Gorilla Cage" described by Matthias Wegner in his review of the book by Mary de Rachewitz, Diskretionen. Die Erinnerungen der Tochter Ezra Pounds (Discretions: Memoirs of the Daughter of Ezra Pound) Haymon Publishing House, Innsbruck 1993. Reviewed in Frankfur- ter Allgemeine Dec. 22, 1993, p. 28.
12 April 15, 1985, p. 65.
lj Erasmus Publishing House, Braunschweig 1950, p. 35ff.
14 Ibid, pp. 38-41.
15 Op. cit. (note 4) p. 49.
16 Ibid, p. 56.
How Israel Murders Peace
Israeli Bulldozer Driver Murders American Peace Activist
By Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed
On March 16, 2003, in Rafah, occupied Gaza, 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie from Olympia, Wash- ington, was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver. Rachel was in Gaza opposing the bulldozing of a Palestinian home as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, which describes itself as follows:1
»The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and Inter- national activists working to raise awareness of the struggle for Pal- estinian freedom and an end to Is- raeli occupation. We utilize non- violent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and chal- lenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.
As enshrined in international law and UN resolutions, we recog- nize the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle. How- ever, we believe that nonviolence can be a powerful weapon in fight- ing oppression and we are commit- ted to the principles of nonviolent resistance. «
Rachel and seven other ISM activ- ists were in the Hi Es Salam area of Rafah, Gaza, trying to prevent the raz- ing of Palestinian land and property.
Present were two Israeli occupation army bulldozers and a tank. For a period of two hours, the activists played 'cat and mouse,' attempting to prevent the illegal demolitions by physically blocking the passage of the two bulldozers.
An e-mailed report from the Palestine Monitor stated:2
Picture taken between 3:00-4:00PM, 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Rachel Corrie (L) and Nick (R) oppose the potential destruction of this home (to the west of the Doctor's home where Rachel was killed). In the instance pictured, the bulldozer did not stop and Rachel was pinned between the scooped earth and the fence behind her. On this occasion, the driver stopped before seriously injuring her. Photo by Joseph Smith (ISM Handout).
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»Rachel Corey [sic], 23 years old from the state of Washington, was killed while she was trying to pre- vent Israeli army bulldozers from destroying a Palestin- ian home. Other foreigners who were with her said the driver of the bulldozer was aware that Rachel was there, and continued to de- stroy the house. Initially he dropped sand and other heavy debris on her, then the bulldozer pushed her to the ground where it pro- ceeded to drive over her, fracturing both of her arms, legs and skull. She was transferred to hospital, where she later died. An- other foreigner was also in- jured in the attack and has been hospitalized - at this stage his nationality is un- known.«
A press release from the In- ternational Solidarity Move- ment dated March 15, 2003, stated:
»Rachel had been stay- ing in Palestinian homes threatened with illegal demolition, and today Ra- chel was standing with other non-violent international activists in front of a home scheduled for illegal demoli- tion. According to witnesses, Rachel was run over twice
Picture taken between 3:00-4:00PM on 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. A clearly marked Rachel Corrie, holding a megaphone, confronts the driver of one of two Israeli bulldozers in the area that were attempting to de- molish a Palestinian home. She was confronting the bulldozer in order to disrupt its work, and prevent it from threatening any homes. Photo by Jo- seph Smith. (ISM Handout)
Picture taken at 4:45PM. Other peace activists tend to Rachel after she was fatally injured by the driver of the Israeli bulldozer (in background). This photo was taken seconds after the bulldozer driver dragged his blade over her for the second time while reversing back over her body. He lifted the blade as seen in the photo only after he had dragged it back over Rachel's body. This image clearly shows that had he lifted his blade at any time he may have avoided killing her, as the bottom section of the bulldozer is raised off the ground. Photo by Richard Purssell. (ISM Handout)
Picture taken at 4:47PM on March 16, 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Rachel Corrie lies on the ground fatally injured by the Israeli bull- dozer driver. Rachel's fellow activists have dug her a little out of the sand and are trying to keep her neck straight due to spinal injury. Photo by Joseph Smith. (ISM Handout)
by the Israeli military bull- dozer in its process of demolishing the Palestinian home. Witnesses say that Rachel was clearly visible to the bull- dozer driver, and was doing nothing to provoke an attack.« The photos below clearly show that Rachel was well
marked, had a megaphone which removes any doubt that the
activists' presence was somehow invisible to the driver, and she
clearly posed no threat to the bulldozer driver.
A later report from ISM Media Coordinator Michael Shaik
in Beit Sahour offered more details about the events:
"The confrontation between the ISM and the Israeli Army had been under way for two hours when Rachel was run over. Rachel and the other activists had clearly identi- fied themselves as unarmed international peace activists throughout the confrontation.
The Israeli Army are attempting to dishonour her mem- ory by claiming that Rachel was killed accidentally when she ran in front of the bulldozer. Eye-witnesses to the mur-
Rachel in Najjar hostpital, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Rachel arrived in the emergency room at 5:05PM and doctors scrambled to save her. By 5:20PM, she was gone. Ha'aretz reported that Dr. All Musa, a doctor at Al-Najjar, stated that the cause of death was "skull and chest frac- tures". Photo by Mohammad Al-Moghair
The Most Recent Victims
Israeli Soldiers Shot Tom Hurndall, 22, a British ISM Activist while he was protecting children in Rafah from Israeli gunfire on April 10, 2003. Tom was hit in the head by sniper fire. His condition is listed as critical.3
Brian Avery, 23, US ISM activist shot in the face by Israeli Forces in Jenin on April 5, 2003. He has suffered sever damage to his face and will have to undergo extensive re- constructive surgery. Brian returned home from the hospital in Haifa on June 16, 2003.4
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der insist that this is totally untrue. Rachel was sitting in the path of the bulldozer as it advanced towards her. When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it wearing a fluorescent jacket to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing. The bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled under the pile of dirt and rubble. Af- ter she had disappeared from view the driver kept advanc- ing until the bulldozer was completely on top of her. The driver did not lift the bulldozer blade and so she was crushed beneath it. Then the driver backed off and the seven other ISM activists taking part in the action rushed to dig out her body. An ambulance rushed her to A-Najar hospital where she died. "
"This is a regrettable accident, " Israeli Defence [sic] Forces spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal was reported as saying in Ha'aretz newspaper. "We are dealing with a group of protesters who were acting very irresponsibly, put- ting everyone in danger. "
Members of the Israeli army and associated Israeli settler
paramilitary units have been responsible for the killing of 2,181 Palestinians and the injuring of another 22,2 1 8 between Sep- tember 29, 2000, and March 14, 2003.
In addition to the killing of Rachel Corrie by the bulldozer driver, Israeli troops have shot and killed several other interna- tionals in different incidents during the Intifada: German doctor Harald Fischer, Italian cameraman Rafaeli Ciriello, and British United Nations worker Iain Hook.5
Notes
Taken from The Electronic Intifada, March 16, 2003, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/articlel248.shtml. Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed are two founders of the Electronic Intifada. Michael Brown and Ken Harper also contributed to this report.
1 www.palsolidarity.org/
2 www.palestinemonitor.org/, March 15, 2003.
3 See www.palsolidarity.org/activists/tomhurndall/tomhurndall.htm
4 See www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/5Apr03_JeninMichael.htm
5 See http://electronicintifada.net/cgi- bin/artman/exec/search.cgi?keyword=iain%20hook
Eulogy to Rachel
By Colonel Maguire
Sixteen hundred years ago in 404 AD the Christian monk Telemachus traveled from Asia Minor to Rome with a fixed purpose: end the gladiatorial combats. Upon arriving in Rome he ran into the arena crying out "In the name of Christ, fore- bear!" Telemachus interposed his body between the combatants to try to stop the gladiators. But the gladiators and their crowds, many 'Christians' among them, didn't forebear his interference in their ancient traditions. Together they killed Telemachus. But Honorius, the Christian Roman Emperor of the West, was stricken in his conscience. He did forebear and that very eve- ning he outlawed all future gladiatorial contests.
Recently another pilgrim from afar interposed her frail body crying out 'Forebear! ' By her side stood a man in fervent and reverent prayer appealing to Heaven for her success. We can imagine 1 600 years ago other Christians praying as Telemachus interposed his body between the gladiators. Like Telemachus, Rachel Corrie was mercilessly crushed by the heartless ones, heedless of her pleas and angered by her message. In the tiers of the worldwide videodrome the watching mob, many Judeo- Christians among them, also roared out "kill, kill". So far our analogy is exact.
The utter callousness of this documented war crime, the premeditated character of the Israeli driver's acts; and also of the by-standing Israeli security troops who couldn't be bothered for 10 seconds of pepper spray to move Rachel and friends aside, all of this defies our comprehension. We know none of these Zionist occupation troops go into the Gaza Strip alone to demolish a home. But to complete this scene from Dante's In- ferno, to perfect the satanic insult to Christ, afterwards some Pharisees passed by and refused their medical help to this woman lying broken in the dust. This happened not far from where the merciful Samaritan's wounded wayfarer lay two mil-
lennia ago. It's not just the killing but the casual gratuitousness of it all. One can imagine demons in Hell behaving this way with the damned, but nowhere else.
The aftermath however is quite different. Instead of outlaw- ing demolitions, the Israeli government declares the driver 'not guilty' in a rigged investigation, while proclaiming the activity itself legal. The videodrome mob continues to cry out for more blood. Can anyone still question that here indeed is the King- dom of the Anti-Christ, populated by Zionist Jews and Zionist Gentiles alike? Does any question remain that God has deliv- ered these people over for utter destruction?
And what, you may ask, has the government of the United States of America under the leadership of President George W. Bush done about this atrocity? After all, Rachel Corrie was an American citizen. Nor is the Gaza Strip sovereign Israeli terri- tory. Israeli troops illegally occupy this land in contemptuous defiance of multiple UN Security Council resolutions demand- ing their immediate withdrawal. If ever there was a clear cut in- ternational war crime, here it is, complete with multiple human witnesses and recorded live in full color video.
In these circumstances should not the People and Govern- ment of the United States demand an apology? Should not the President call a press conference and demand that Sharon's government arrest the perpetrators, both the guilty soldiers di- rectly involved and their military and civilian superiors? Should not these war criminals be extradited to the United States to stand trial and be brought to justice? Should not the govern- ment of the United States immediately end all aid to the Zionist State until it bows to international law and the dictates of com- mon humanity?
It is not surprising that President Bush has not made so much as a single peep of protest to the Israelis. It is understand-
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able because, quite frankly, the Jews and Israel dominate this corrupt administration. They own Mr. Bush, they control his Department of Defense and he, their obedient puppet, faithfully does their bidding.
And where are the voices of those who claim to speak for Christ today, that evangelical Christian leadership we see daily on Jewish owned television channels? These self-appointed prophets, men like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and Billy Graham could not care less about what happened to Rachel Corrie. They preach that Israel can do no wrong; they are concerned only with promoting Zionist political ambitions
and they gladly ignore any Christian principles which do not fit the Israeli agenda.
Nor have the media-CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, the Associated Press and newspapers across North America, uttered more than a passing reference about the tragic events of last March 16, when young Rachel Corrie 's life was snuffed out by cruel and sadistic Israeli killers. They, too, you see, are owned and con- trolled by Zionist Jewish interests. They, too, like Bush, his Washington D.C. cohorts, and the pro-Zionist Christian lobby, are complicit in the murder of Rachel Corrie.
How German and American Money is Spent in Israel
By German Rudolf
It ought to be general knowledge that Israel can survive only because it receives massive funding mainly from two na- tions: Germany — by manipulating public opinion with an im- posed German guilt complex — and the United States as a result of the enormous political influence of American Jewish lobby groups. The reasoning behind unconditional support for Israel
is that after the 'Holocaust,' the Jews deserve their own country so that they have a safe haven in the future. How concentrating millions of Jews on a small strip of land surrounded by hun- dreds of millions of extremely hostile people can possibly be called a safe haven, is a riddle in and of itself. Such a setup al- most asks any would-be exterminator for a sweep 'final solu-
The Gaza Wall, Israel's Anti-Arab Defence Wall, under construction...
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tion' of the Jewish question in the Middle East.
As a result of this situation, the Jewish attempts to turn 'their' homeland into a fortress become more and more gro- tesque. While the U.S. was preparing to go to war against Iraq, arguably the potentially most dangerous opponent of Israel, Is- rael re-invented 'The Wall:' it started erecting a huge concrete wall around the occupied Gaza area to contain the local Pales- tinian population. It certainly is not intended to keep the Jews within, as the Berlin Wall was built by the communist east German regime to keep its citizens from fleeing, even though this wall is looking shockingly similar to the former Berlin Wall. This wall, however, is supposed to protect the Jewish oc-
cupational power from the risk of any hostile intrusion, similar perhaps to the ancient Roman Hadrian Wall in Scotland or the Limes in Germany. Each mile of this wall costs roughly one million dollars, made possible because of American and Ger- man funds. It is a perfect expression of the Zionist paranoia of permanent siege. Not only every Israeli Embassy looks like a small KZ (concentration camp) — with the decisive difference that the watch towers are directed outwardly — now all of Israel seems to be slowly transferred into a huge fortress secured by massive walls and guarded by terrifyingly looking watch- towers.
Foreign Workers in the Third Reich
By OSTR Hans-Jurgen Witzsch
Between 1997 and 2001, a broad media campaign occurred in Germany reporting about the widespread use of so- called forced laborers in Germany during the Third Reich period. These people were brought into the German Reich from German occupied territories allegedly against their free will, and it is claimed that these persons were exploited and treated inhumanely. These media reports followed the general historiographic pattern as it was imposed by the vic- torious powers of World War II. Germany's biggest weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel, for example, adopted this po- sition most emphatically and supported the claims made by certain lobby groups that Germany ought to pay huge amounts of money to compensate the alleged foreign 'working slaves.' It is significant that hardly any newspaper re- ported about the millions of Germans who, after the war, were forced to work for the victorious powers abroad. Appar- ently, the utmost pitiful working and living conditions of these unpaid German slaves were not even worth mentioning.
He who desires to study this section of history in more detail will discover soon that a real lack of research exists here — also within Revisionism. Up to now no scientific work has been presented which deserves to be called seriously scholarly, not to mention a standard work.
Official Presentation of the Subject
How the complex of the foreign workers in the Third Reich is treated by the official German research can be gathered for example from the article in Germany's highly renowned news- paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of March 16, 1999, with the title "The Million Men Army of the Modern Slave State" and the subtitle "Deported, worn out, forgotten: Who were the forced laborers of the Third Reich and what fate did they await?", in which Ulrich Herbert, professor for modern history at the University of Freiburg, writes about this topic. Herbert talks about forced laborers, whether it involves concentration camp inmates, prisoners of war (POW's), or foreign workers:
"The National Socialist 'employment of foreigners ' be- tween 1939 and 1945 represents the largest case of forced mass usage of foreign workers in history since the end of slavery in the 19th century. In the late summer of 1944, there were 7.6 million foreign civilian workers and POW's offi- cially registered as employed on the territory of the 'Greater German Reich. ' Most of them were forcedly brought for work deployment into the Reich. " Herbert continues that the deployment of Poles led "to a regular man hunt in the so called 'General Gouvernement' in spring of 1940":
"They had to live in barrack camps, which was, how- ever, practically impossible to implement in the country side. They received lower wages, were not allowed to use public installations— from express trains to public baths [...] — they had to work longer hours than Germans. [...] Within a short period of time, a great number of Polish workers were brought to Germany against their will. [...] Until 1941/42, the proportion of 'voluntary' workers was relatively large in northern and western Europe. " Especially bad were the conditions for the so-called east- workers:
"[They] had to live in camps surrounded with barbed wire fences and guarded and were especially exposed to the unpredictability of the Gestapo and the company 's security units. [...] Especially in the years 1942/43, the rations for the Soviet forced laborers, officially called 'east-workers. ' were so low that they were massively malnourished and un- able to work already a few weeks after their arrival. [...The] Soviet workers, however, received especially fixed wages, which were considerably lower than those of the German and foreign workers — nominally at about 40%, but in most cases probably even lower than that. " Herbert does not give any evidence to support his claims.
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In response to this, Dr. Heinz Splittgerber, author of several historic articles, writes about his personal experiences:
"The Polish agricultural workers in central Pomerania, my home, were properly recruited. They received wages, accommodations, ration cards, medical treatment. They usually arrived ragged, outfitted themselves at our homes, and achieved a living standard which they could not achieve in eastern Poland and northern Ukraine — / know both regions — and which they could never have imagined. " (personal communication to this author)
Research Hurdles
When it comes to the historiography of the Third Reich pe- riod, freedom of speech and freedom of science as well as the equality before the law are no longer guaranteed in Germany, even though this is an open breach of German constitutional law and the U.N. declaration of Human Rights. Even non- public statements are nowadays threatened with severe legal penalties in Germany and the subsequent destruction of one's professional career. A public prosecutor told the author of this article, an academic historian by profession, during a trial in Germany that he must just as well always follow the relevant latest jurisdictions in order to recognize what he as a historian is allowed to say.
As a result of this situation, only a few politically independ- ent historians dare to walk on stony paths, through the mine fields of a persecutory judiciary. These few historians do not pay attention to expectation imposed onto them by highly ques- tionable censorship laws, but are only bound by the law of truth in order to research with historiographic methods and in accor- dance with the late German historian Leopold Ranke, who once said that historiography is about describing events "as they ac- tually were." Nevertheless, surprisingly many corrections of the victor's version of history have to be acknowledged, as they have become necessary in particular regarding the question of the 'forced laborers.'
When dealing with historical questions, one has to check first what a common witness of that time with a critical attitude could know about the topic at hand without special knowledge and what is known about the topic today in a normal democ- ratic society with an open exchange of views. Apart from war- time newspaper reports about the employment of foreign work- ers and their treatment within the framework of official instruc- tions, the inhabitants of large cities, but also those living in ru- ral districts, could observe foreign workers on a daily basis on their way to factories and at their workplace. They could ob- serve the behavior of those workers and how they were treated in public, including their nutritional condition and their external appearance. Already in this regard, most eyewitnesses today vehemently contradict the propaganda picture of the allegedly inhumanely treated and exploited forced laborers. Significantly enough, not a single photo was ever submitted to substantiate such accusations. In June 1998, when the author of this article talked for the first time about the results of his research in a public lecture, more eyewitnesses than ever before during his lecture-activity of 22 years contributed their own experiences to the question of foreign workers, and some of them with re- markable details, confirming the basic content of the lecture.
Contemporary Documents
Regarding documents as the basis for my elaboration, it ought to be mentioned that — apart from official German war- time instructions — there exists a 'key document' which was in- troduced into the proceedings of the International Military Tri- bunal of Nuremberg by the defence team. It basically refutes the allegations made by the victor's version of history (KV Vert. P.L. 55). Through intensive search in the states archive in Nuremberg (Staatsarchiv), originals of sworn affidavits were found and could be evaluated in context. These affidavits repre- sent an important supplement to the official German wartime instructions, enabling the development of a more realistic pic- ture of the conditions at that time. The files of the "Gau- gerichte" (district courts) which were referred to in the various testimonies, could not be found. These courts tried members of the National Socialist leadership who were accused of various crimes. If found guilty, these leaders were especially severely punished, because according to the opinion of the National So- cialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), these leaders were supposed to be examples to the average citizen.
Legal Definitions in the Third Reich
The existing instructions of the German wartime authorities do not confirm the negative picture of today's media. For in- stance, a special printing of the Reichsarbeitsblatt (Reich Labor Paper) with the title "Der Einsatz auslandischer Arbeitskrafte in Deutschland," (The employment of foreign workers in Ger- many), Berlin 1942, points out on page 22 about social secu- rity:
"In principal, foreign workers and employees are enti- tled to the same German health insurance, accidence insur- ance, and social security insurance (disability insurance, unemployment insurance, retirement insurance) in the same manner as comparable German workers are. Therefore, these insurance contributions have to be deposited follow- ing the general legal requirements. "
According to a secret instruction dated from April 1, 1943, which was prepared by the Secret State Police (Gestapo) of Hesse, a special rule applied to workers from countries occu- pied by German troops. These workers needed some security screening. According to this 67 pages long document, of which only a few pages were submitted to the IMT (Doc. NO-2907), east-workers were allowed to leave their living-quarters only in order to go to perform their work within the work places:
"East-workers, however, who display a good attitude inside of the camp as well as at work, can be allowed to leave. [...] the supervising member of the camp service has to be made responsible that [...] the east-workers behave themselves decently and reserved outside as well, and espe- cially that they do not harass Germans and return back to the camp timely. [They are] to be accommodated in closed camps (barracks) with a suitable fence (but no barbed wire). [...] In contrast to this, female workers who are em- ployed individually in agriculture or in households can be accommodated individually. [...] The use of public transpor- tation as well as swimming pools, restaurants, movie houses, and theaters is not allowed [...] exceptions can [...] be made. [It] is allowed to listen to German music programs
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AFFIDAVIT POLITISCHE LEITER-SS
EIDESSTATTLICHE ERKLARUNG VOM 30. JUH 1946 DES MA- SCHINEN-INGENIEURS JOSEF REINHART: ERGEBNISSE DER BE- ARBEITUNG VON 15433 EIDESSTATTLICHEN ERKLARUNGEN VON EHEUALIGEN POLITISCHEN L.EITERN IN DEN INTER- N TERUNGSL AGERN BEZOGLICH IHRER STELLUN GNAHME UND HANDLUNGEN IM ZUSAMMENHANG MIT DER BEHANDLUNG AUSLANDISCHER Z1VILAHBEITER UND KRIEGSGEFANGENER
RESCJIItEIBUKC: U'mi mid hs'ri H
Nuernberg. Germany, den 30, July 1946
Betrifft: Behandlung auslaend. Zivilarbeiler und Kriegsgefangener.
Affidavit von
Herrn Josef R e I n h a r t , geboren 29. 6. 1899 in Sulzheim. Kreis Gerolzhofen, wohnhaft in Memmelsdorf Krs. Ebern Beruf: Maschinen-Ingenieur z. Zt. Gerichtsgefaengnis Nuernberg, being duly sworn depose and say: I. Nach Durchsicht und Pi-uefung der vorlicgenden eidesstatt lichen Erklaerungen, die von ehemaligen Poliiischcn Leitern aus den Intern ierungslagcrn -/.u dem oben genannlen Anklagcpunkt ein- gcreicht wurden stelle ich fcsl und bczcuge ich, dass mir
15 4 3,3 eidesstattliche Erklaerungen zur Bearbcitung vorgclegen habcn. II. In den vorlicgenden eidesstatllichen Erklaerungen haben
1, 9243 Politische Leiler versichert, dass die Unterbringung
der auslaendischen Arbcitskrafte in ordnungsmaessigor Wcisc erfolgte.
2. 11421 Politische Leiter versichert, dass die auslaendischen
Arbeilskraefte entsprechend den Kriegsverhaeltnissen crdnungsgemacss verpflcgt und bekleidet wurden, die Verpflegung in vielen Faellen durch Gewachrung von Zusaolzen sogar guenstigei gercgclt war, als fuer deutsche Normalvcrbraucher,
3, 12775 Politische Leiter versichert. dass die auslaendischen Arbeitskraefte von ibren Arbeit-
gebern gerecht und anstaendig behandelt wurden, cinzeln vorgekommene Uebergrilfe mit Strafen ge- ahndet wurden, die aerztliche Vcrsorgung, soziale und kullu.elle Belreuung in der fuer deutsche Arbeiter allgemein ueblichen Weise geregeit war, J 179 Politische Leiter versichert, dass schwangere auslacn- dische Arbciterinnen anstaendig behandelt und bet rent wurden und dass ferner in vveitgehendster Weise fuer Woechnerinnen, Saeuglingc und Klcinkindcr gesorg! wurde.
In zahlreichen Erklaerungen haben Politische Leiter hervor- gchoben, dass die auslaendischen Arbeilskraefte
A. sich bei Luftangriffen durch freiwilligen Einsatz besonders auszeichneten,
B Nach der Kapitulalion aus Dankbarkeit fuer gute Bchand- lung freiwillig weiterhin auf ihren Arbeitsplaetzen ver- bliebcn und ihre Arbeitgeber gegen Pluenderungen und Belacstigung schueUten. Die oeben angegebenen Tatsachen entsprechen der Wahrheit. Ich versichere ausdruedtlich, dass alle mir vorgelegten Lrkiae- rungen ausgewertet und beruecksichtigt sind.
Jose/ Keinlinrt Signature of Affidavit
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of July 1946 at Nuernberg, Germany,
Prcmcis Altx, Copt O-US0S1S Name — Grade — ASN
I KVETA LIKOVSKA being thoroughly converse nt with both in English and German certify that I have Acted as interpreter for this swearing,
KvUa Lttcouska
Document PL(A) 55 of the International Court, Nuremberg (IMT Vol. 42, p. 350ff.) "[...] After reviewing and assessing the of sworn affidavits by former political leaders [...], I confirm that I was given 15,433 sworn affidavits. [...]
1 . 9243 Political Leaders assured that foreign workers were lodged in an orderly manner.
2. 11421 Political Leaders assured that foreign workers were fed and dressed orderly according to the war conditions, that provisioning was in many cases even better than that of the average German consumer due to the granting of supplements,
3. 12775 Political Leaders assured that foreign workers were treated justly and decently by their employers, that rare cases of transgressions were punished with penalties, that medical care, social, and cultural welfare was regulated as it was generally the case for Germans, [...]
Political Leaders emphasized in numerous declaration that foreign workers
A. distinguished themselves especially by volunteering during air raids,
B. Remained at their working places after the surrender in order to protect their employers from lootings and harassments.
IT
as well as to German official news broadcasts in the Rus- sian, Ukrainian, and White Russian languages. [...] the pro- jection of [...] movies is allowed. [...]3 camp newspapers appear for the east-workers [...] (Ukrainian, Russian, White-Russian). "
Especially severe were the rules which forbade intimate re- lations between east-workers and German women under the threat of the death penalty:
"There are no objections against sexual intercourse be- tween male and female east-workers, as long as the disci- pline inside the camp is not disturbed. " With restrictions, similar rules applied also for Poles. Poles were thus permitted to freely leave their accommodation during
summer time between 5 in the morning and 9 in the evening. The rules for recreation — "For Jews, socializing with the Ger- man population is forbidden" — is documentary evidence for the fact that even Polish Jews were employed as foreign workers in the Reich. Czechs were treated like Germans in all areas, with the exception that intimate relations with Germans were forbid- den.
If the necessity of restricting measures in wartime is not de- nied, then neither these rules nor others presented during the Nuremberg trials will be considered to have been inappropriate restrictions. The severe penalties threatened exclusively for in- timate relationships between Germans and foreigners become understandable, if one considers that it was pivotal for the
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German war effort to have a strong link between the home front and the fighting front. One factor contributing to the German soldier's strong morale was that they could be sure about the rigorous moral integrity of their wives. Not a single testimony, however, came to the attention of this author indicating that even a single death sentence was ever meted out against a non- German offender. On the other hand, various statements report about intimate relationships between foreigners and unmarried German girls, which were tacitly tolerated by the German au- thorities and which were usually legalized by marriage after the war.
On March 23, 1943, the German authorities decreed a law about the employment conditions of the east-workers, which determined the wages in § 2:
"The same wage and salary conditions apply for east- workers as for all other foreign workers. East-workers will be paid only for actual work performed. " With this new law, former practices to pay east- workers less than others were outlawed, a fact which Professor Herbert evidently is unaware of. Even before this new law was enacted, the deduc- tions made for east-workers were not as high as Herbert implies, as union representatives con- firmed. §5 of the above law confirms that "east- workers receive vacation and home trips to their family", which by itself renders absurd the thesis of east- workers as 'slaves'.
of historical truth as the basis of a future peaceful European or- der. Thus, for example, the factual results of the proceedings during the Pohl trial, which was conducted in a basically objec- tive atmosphere, was almost completely ignored in the written verdict.
The key document for our topic is, as already mentioned, Doc. P.L. 55, which is an evaluation of 15,433 sworn affidavits by former German Political Leaders. These documents indi- cates that the Allied' s claims regarding the treatment of foreign workers in the Third Reich lacked any objective basis. Some of the individual affidavits were preserved through a fortunate co- incidence: little more than 1,200 of these affidavits originate from the internment camp Darmstadt. Among other documents, the evaluation of these affidavits is the basis for the present ar- ticle. In numerous affidavits, the names of the employed for- eign workers are listed and it is pointed out that their exonerat-
Witness Testimonies during the Post- War Trials
The goal was clear, which the victorious pow- ers of World War two pursued with the IMT trial and the subsequent trials, of which the Nuremberg Military Tribunal Case 4 was the most important, since it dealt with the crimes allegedly committed in the concentration camp system and by the SS. These trials were setup in order to depict the Ger- man government and its representatives in general as criminals — sentenced by an apparently irre- proachably fair court — and to stifle any discussion of allied war crimes, which were still committed on a grand scale during the time of the trial itself. For this reason, all attempts of the Nuremberg de- fense team to compare alleged German transgres- sions with those of the judging allies were always rejected. The defense was allowed to interrogate the interned German Political Leaders (Politische Leiter, P.L.), who were automatically arrested at war's end, but the evaluation of these testimonies was never presented to the public. The trials were conducted following Anglo-Saxon law, which meant that the prosecution submitted only such evidence which they assumed to be incriminating. In order not to let 'unfavorable' facts become pub- lic, the defense was refused access to confiscated files and documents in archives under allied con- trol. Thus, this trial was about the cementing of political 'truth' rather than about the investigation
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Some legal rules of the Third Reich about the social insurance of the for- eign workers during the war, generous as no other nation during this time. From a special printing of the Reichsarbeitsblatt, Berlin 1942. Copied from the brochure Deutschland — Schrift fur neue Ordnung, 32(7/8) 1999, pp. 16ft
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
315
ing testimony about the actual conditions in Germany is also included in the files of the CIC (U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps). We know about their partial content only because some passages of them were quoted.
How little the Allies were interested in the preservation of these important documents of the defense becomes obvious from an internal letter exchange, in which the director of the government archives Dr. Solleder informed R. A Gawlik, who participated in the Nuremberg trials, on August 7, 1951:
"Among the waste paper, designated by the Military
Government as trash, we found the original testimonials for
the defense of the SS and the Political Leadership and
transferred these to the State Archive. [...] "
When evaluating the Allies' attitude toward the defense dur- ing these trials, it is not surprising to discover that the Allies in- tended to destroy undesired material of the defense, which con- tradicted the political goals of the Allies. It therefore has to be assumed that the important, confirming affidavits by foreign workers as quoted above did not find their way into the Allied archives.
With reference to their own observations, a few Political Leaders did also clearly express their views regarding attempts to twist the historic truth. For instance, the teacher Volkwein from the district of Melsungen in the then 'Gau' Kurhessen wrote on June 16, 1946:
"In my opinion, the allegations that foreign workers were mistreated is without any legal basis and are made to- day only for convenient reasons of certain circles, without being able to prove them. The authorities organizing these trials should turn their attention to the honest part of those who stood in German service during the war. Then they would perceive a totally different picture than the one which is publicized in the world today for propaganda reasons. Those looking for the truth will find it, but those who do not want to see the truth will always be blind, no matter how obvious the truth is. " (P.L. 173 Arb. 834) Although the German laws and regulations for the employ- ment of foreign workers did not violate any international laws, as even the victors' post-war trials had to conclude, it neverthe- less has to be investigated if the implementation of these rules resulted in so-called crimes against humanity. Such a discrep- ancy between written rules and laws and their actual implemen- tation is well know for the Soviet Union, where it was common that a humane treatment of prisoners and forced workers was intended by official regulations, but the Soviet camp-reality of- ten was quite the opposite. It would be exactly in this regard that those affidavits would be of tremendous value, since this topic has been totally neglected by modern historiography.
The veracity of these individual affidavits, which were sys- tematically evaluated for the first time, should be considered to be given for the following reasons: First of all, we are dealing with original documents and not with copies, which is quite un- usual especially for those post-war trials, which heavily relied on copies and transcripts. Thus, an examination of authenticity is possible, which clearly exists here. Next, the credibility of the statements is very high because these affidavits are declara- tions made under oath by political leaders (P.L.) who at that time were prisoners of the victorious powers. These prisoners
had to expect high penalties in case they were suspected of hav- ing committed perjury — quite in contrast to witnesses of the prosecution, who were never accused of anything, even if they were proven to have committed perjury. Also, these prisoners were cut off from their accustomed surroundings. The details given in those affidavits about the local conditions could easily be checked at that time. Thirdly, there were obviously numer- ous confirmations by foreign workers who were called as wit- nesses as well, because many of these foreign workers were still in great numbers in Displaced Persons camps in Germany at the time. The declarations also show the official confirmation of an American officer and were prepared in the camp Darm- stadt No. 91. In some few cases (P.L. 170 Arb. 1), the U.S: military — evidently often victims of their own propaganda — considered the contents of the sworn statements to be so unbe- lievable that the Political Leaders who had given these affida- vits had to confirm — under oath — the correctness of their statements before a different U.S. officer a second time.
Voluntary Work Employment
Contrary to concentration camp inmates and POW's, the foreign workers usually came voluntarily to Germany for work. This is not only evident from the official announcements, but also from the confirmation of Political Leaders who were tak- ing care of foreign workers, as well as by statements from offi- cials of the "Deutsche Arbeitsfronf (German Labor Front, DAF). This fact was also confirmed by the volunteers them- selves in numerous statements. In over 1,200 testimonies, I found only one single vague indication of a forced work em- ployment, while all the others, insofar as they commented on this question, clearly point out that all foreign workers were employed voluntarily. It was repeatedly stated that the labor ef- ficiency could never have been achieved with forced labor. Dr. Seidl, a defense lawyer during the IMT in Nuremberg, ex- plained in this regard:
"The fact cannot be ignored that even today many hun- dred thousands of foreign workers live here, who were al- legedly deported by force. They refuse now to return to their home lands, even though nobody stops them. Under these circumstances it has to be assumed that the force could not have been so big and the treatment in Germany not so bad as alleged by the prosecution. " (IMT Vol. XVIII p. 172 ff.) From numerous documents, only two will be quoted. First Oberreichsbahnrat Horn from Berlin:
"That the people in general feel quite comfortable, can be realized by the fact that in railroad-works in Branden- burg, Potsdam, and Tempelhof Ukranian, Belgian, and Dutch workers agreed to bring with them more voluntary workers after their home-vacation, which they were entitled to. " (P.L. 174 Arb. 1 142)
Mayor Kolsch of the German City of Stendal explained the development:
"During the western campaign, I frequently heard the desire of the population in Holland, Belgium, and France to want to work in Germany. During the eastern campaign, the rush in the Caucasus and the Don area to work for Ger- many was greater than the need for foreign workers. The local employment offices tried [...] to stop illegal immigra-
te
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
Hons to Germany because many persons came secretly across the border on freight trains or with vacationers. " (P.L. 173 Arb. 761)
These are typical statements about this subject. Many wit- nesses commented, if the foreign workers were not recruited on a voluntary basis, they would have hardly returned from their home vacations back into the Reich, apart from the fact that they frequently brought with them further volunteers from their circles of acquaintances and friends, which contributed in an avalanche-like fashion to rapidly increase the number of for- eign workers in Germany.
In order to fill millions of free work places, which became vacant by the widening of the war, the employment of millions of foreign workers was required. Reasonable working effi- ciency could only be achieved if the working conditions for foreign workers were better than in their home countries. The promises made in occupied countries in official German adver- tisements had to be kept if one wanted to obtain satisfied work- ers. And that is exactly what happened, as is shown in the tes- timonies with many details.
Taking Care of the Foreign Workers
The care of the foreign workers was both in the hands of the DAF (German Labor Front), which made sure that the official promises were kept, and the trustees of the various nationalities, who discussed all occurring difficulties with the authorities and pushed satisfying solutions for their compatriots. The district administrator for work deployment of the DAF for the district Kurhessen, Karl Rulff, explained about this:
"In case of all positions occupied in my district office, I had the following personnel at my disposal: 1 district administrator for work deployment, 1 district representa- tive for camp care, 1 district representative for community supplies, I district cooking instructor, 1 district represen-
tative for leisure time activities, 1 legal advisor for foreign workers, 1 district representative for female community camps, also additionally office assistance staff and typists as German co-workers. The foreign liaison offices were occupied as follows: [...] e) district office for east- workers: 1 district liaison man, I woman in charge of fe- male east-workers, and 1 German shorthand writer. " (P.L. 170 Arb. 4)
The larger political goal of the foreign work deployment program was briefly described by Regierungsrat Fritz Neid- hardt (among others confirmed by K. Knochel, district office for ethnic questions in the district of Pranken):
"The circular of the main office for ethnic questions of the Reich's leadership of the NSDAP [...] contained [...] an instruction for the treatment of foreign workers. This direc- tive decreed that foreign workers — under preservation of the dignity of their own people — shall be treated decently and justly so that they take back good impressions of the German people and its institutions when returning to their home country and informing their compatriots in this sense. " (P.L. 204 o.Nr.)
Many restricting regulations were quietly ignored, because they burdened the good relationship between foreign workers and the German people; for example, visiting German leisure facilities and the use of German public transportation was soon permitted in wide parts of the Reich.
The Sauckel Case
Although it certainly would have been advantageous for many party leaders after the war, while they were in allied cus- tody, to blame everything on Gauleiter Sauckel, the Plenipoten- tiary for Labor Deployment (Generalbevollmachtigter fur den Arbeitseinsatz, GBA), there is not in a single testimony saying anything negative. On the contrary, numerous testimony
Foreign Workers in the German War Economy 1939 to 1944* |
|||||||
1939 |
1940 |
1941 |
1942 |
1943 |
1944 |
||
Germans |
10.732.000 |
9.684.000 |
8.939.000 |
8.969.000 |
8.743.000 |
8.460.000 |
|
Foreign Civilians |
118.000 |
412.000 |
769.000 |
1.170.000 |
1.561.000 |
1.767.000 |
|
Agriculture |
POW's |
249.000 |
642.000 |
759.000 |
609.000 |
635.000 |
|
Foreigners Total |
118.000 |
661.000 |
1.411.000 |
1.929.000 |
2.230.000 |
2.402.000 |
|
Foreigners in % of all Employed |
1,1 % |
6,4% |
13,6% |
17,7% |
20,3% |
22,1% |
|
Germans |
28.382.000 |
25.207.000 |
24.273.000 |
22.568.000 |
21.324.000 |
20.144.000 |
|
Foreign Civilians |
183.000 |
391.000 |
984.000 |
1.475.000 |
3.276.000 |
3.528.000 |
|
All Non- |
POW's |
99.000 |
674.000 |
730.000 |
954.000 |
1.196.000 |
|
Agriculture |
Foreigners Total |
183.000 |
490.000 |
1.659.000 |
2.205.000 |
4.230.000 |
4.724.000 |
Foreigners in % of all Employed |
0,6% |
1,9% |
6,4% |
8,9% |
16,5% |
18,9% |
|
Germans |
39.114.000 |
34.891.000 |
33.212.000 |
31.537.000 |
30.067.000 |
28.604.000 |
|
Foreign Civilians |
301.000 |
803.000 |
1.751000 |
2.645.000 |
4.837.000 |
5.295.000 |
|
Overall |
POW's |
348.000 |
1.31.6.000 |
1.489.000 |
1.623.000 |
1.831.000 |
|
Economy |
Foreigners Total |
301.000 |
1.151.000 |
3.069.000 |
4.134.000 |
6.460.000 |
7.126.000 |
Foreigners in % of all Employed |
0,8% |
3,2% |
8,5% |
11,6% |
17,7% |
19,9% |
|
* Klaus Barwig, Giinter Saathoff, Nicole Weyde (ed.), Entschddigung fur NS-Zwangsarbeit, Baden Baden 1998, p. 337; the title of the table in this book is both typical and false: "Forced Labor of German Prisoners of War and Civil Deportees[sic!]" |
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
317
stressed that Sauckel constantly intervened to improve accom- modations and provisions for foreign workers and that he threatened with severe punishments should foreign workers be mistreated. The testimony of Landrat Recknagel from Schmal- kalden may be seen as representative for many other state- ments:
"After Gauleiter Sauckel became GBA, during all offi- cial meetings in Weimar, where all office leaders and dis- trict officials as well as higher government officials were present, he made it compulsory that foreign workers are al- ways treated and accommodated decently, and he de- manded to immediately interfere against injustice or, if no remedy was possible, to inform him instantly so that he could interfere. When the east-workers arrived in large numbers, he declared during one meeting that east-workers,
who had committed a misdemeanor, must not be beaten un- der any circumstance, but that the concerned must be handed over to the police for an investigation. For every case of beating a foreign worker that came to his knowl- edge, he would demand the most severe punishment of those responsible for this mistreatment. " (P.L. 173 Arb. 828) Only because of these measures, the recruitment of foreign workers from German occupied countries was such a success that at the end of the war there were more workers from abroad working in the Reich than there are foreigners in Germany to- day. It is indisputable that Sauckel was innocent; from today's perspective, his execution in Nuremberg clearly was a political murder, and his posthumous rehabilitation by the responsible powers should be a matter of course — similar to the abolition of unjust judgments of the Soviet Union in today's Russia.
Arb.ia- ■
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CTE 91 DARMSTADT
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II.
Ich war von 1S35-1945 Gaudosentanf Lihrer an der university HaXla (Ggu flalle-Morseburg) und bin in usincr -Sigenschaf t als Direktoi der Chirurp .Univ.iainil;. oft nit kranken uiid verle^Kten aualandi- se^en Zivllarbeitern- u. Arbeit erinnea in 3eruhraa* gekoamen. Dices warden in daycleichen VYeise via fiaatsche sraake, ja ohne TTeftncng von die sen und unter...Anv/endung filler diagnosis chen und ttieraDeutischen KSSlichkeiten untersucht, untergebracht, versorgt urd .behaadclt. Scav/ierigere operative Eingriffe vmrden such an Aualondew von uir selbst ausgefiilirt. Dicse uaterachicaolose Bs- haadlvuig 1st bei der lintlassung fast von jedem Auclander aner- kaaat worden.
Va die graduierten AttslUndcr (Hooaschulabachlnfl), die an Inistitu-vg ten der Univevsitfit-,- dor Industrie nnd flirtnohaft zur Arbeit ein-^ xmatrt war en: hsbea sich Mitglieder dor, Doaentenbundos be son der s-., beaiiht. Bieoa AtMdUader gal ten als sXeichberech-uigte Li^ beater und waren fast stats in die Institutseememschaf «, cat emgesoblosv c*t>. In der Freliseit erfolgtcn {jeaeir.asa Theater-, ;,onnert->.md ]Iirob-^suohe ait deut sober. As si stouten und Bojsentea. »*hrxaca iiabe.,. ioh in eclMS Haus Aunliinderi-bende uit masikalisoiiea una tenet- lerisc&fia Barbie tungen voroaota*ltet, woran star rlalfte Deutsche :g u"d tosliinder toilJiahmon. k-.i diesen y.Abaadan nanoon neben der: .v. Kehbrigen von 9-1 6 IlV.ionen rarteigcnoaoeji una eica »»arta 3 gcaoaaeJV tail. Alien darttberhinaaa nabea die- in Halle uad Iftagebuag tatigen- (•raduiertea Aasliinder voa dam Aualaadaeat tter Itozeatenscaaft una . von mir'aerBBalioh led* aar laSglicae Untor/jtutaiui- und Hilfo or- . faarea, was in j^nkbridlon und- Au£morfcaeai:oitan AaerJceaaune faad.
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Declaration under Oath by Prof. Wilhelm Wagner (KV-Verf., P.L. 170). This is one example of the more than 15,000 affidavits assuring that foreign workers were treated decently in Germany during WWII.
Competing Foreign Workers
Although during wartime it became very difficult for companies especially in German cities to ensure suitable ac- commodations for the foreign workers as a result of the destruction of resi- dences by the allied carpet bombings, the results of the joint efforts by the German authorities and company man- agements was astounding. Apart from a small fraction of workers who lived in private residences, most foreigners lived in barracks, which were established ac- cording to the camp-instructions of the Reich's labor minister of July 14, 1942. The district labor deployment adminis- trator of that time, Karl Rulff, ex- plained:
"Despite some lack of material, the companies upgrade their camps in many cases better and more beau- tiful" than was prescribed by official directives. "A large part of the for- eign workers was accommodated in huge camp complexes, for example in camp 'Herzog, ' Hess. Lichtenau, about 2, 000 workers — Germans and foreigners — resided in clean, first class rooms with bed and living rooms, large community and eating hall with canteen, theater and radio. A woman camp 'Waldofi ' Hess. Lichtenau, for about 1,000 German and French women had the same ar- rangements. Camp 'Steimbel, ' Neus- tadt, District Marburg, accommo- dated 1,400 foreign and German workers. There were similar ac- commodations, including an eating hall where everybody ate together, including the navy units which were stationed there. A large hall with a
318
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
stage was also available for running events. It was one of the most beautiful and largest halls in the district of Kur- hessen. But also the barrack camps were often real treasure trunks." (P.L. 170 Arb. 4)
Several testimonies mention a camp contest, during which a prize for the most beautiful camp of the district and its areas was awarded on an annual basis. DAF-employee Walter Lotze in Thuringia reported:
"The camp of Zellwolle A.G. Schwarza — 'Schwarza- Pearl in Schwarzburg, ' could almost be compared with a vacation home, and the prize which the camp for east- workers Twan ' in Erfurt (Fa. BEM-Erfurt) received was a holiday for its foreign workers, who in return expressed their gratitude by giving presents to the camp leader and company supervisors. " (P.L. 170 Arb. 3) When camps were destroyed through air raids, government officials and the management of the firms, together with the foreign workers, tried to build new accommodations as fast as possible and to replace the goods lost by their workers. The gratefulness of those foreign workers was also expressed when they organized occasional collections for the National Socialist
People's Welfare (Nationalsozialistischen Volkswohlfahrt, NSV), which were handed considerable amounts.
Food Rations
Concerning food rationing, foreign workers were basically equal to German workers, which lead in many cases to jealousy among the German population because the average German consumer did not obtain extra allocations, which foreign work- ers received due to special assignments. It is therefore not sur- prising that the German population noticed the well-nourished appearances of foreign workers who had been working in Ger- many for a while, a fact which must have been well known to the enemy as well through their spies. The firms attempted to give their workers additional food, which was often to a con- siderable extent successful in spite of official restrictions.
The situation of foreign workers in rural areas was of course especially good in this regard if they were assigned to farms, where they were rated as self-supporters, which means that they were much better fed than normal consumers. Especially in rural areas, efforts for good provisioning of foreign workers some-
Foreign Civilian Workers and POW's according to Nationality and Sector of Economic, Aug. 1944* |
||||||||
Nationality |
Agricul- ture |
Mining |
Metal |
Chemistry |
Construc- tion |
Traffic |
Total |
|
Belgians |
total |
28.652 |
5.146 |
95.872 |
14.029 |
20.906 |
12.576 |
253.648 |
Civilian Workers |
3.948 |
2.787 |
86.441 |
13.533 |
19.349 |
11.585 |
203.262 |
|
POW's |
24.704 |
2.629 |
9.431 |
496 |
1.557 |
991 |
50.386 |
|
in % all Belgians |
11,2% |
2,0% |
37,8% |
5,5% |
8,2% |
4,9% |
100% |
|
French |
total |
405.897 |
21.844 |
370.766 |
48.319 |
59.440 |
48.700 |
1.254.749 |
Civilian Workers |
54.590 |
7.780 |
292.800 |
39.417 |
36.237 |
34.905 |
654.782 |
|
POW's |
351.307 |
14.064 |
77.966 |
8.902 |
23.203 |
13.795 |
599.967 |
|
in % all French |
32,3% |
1,7% |
29,5% |
3,9% |
4,7% |
3,9% |
100% |
|
Italians |
total |
45.288 |
50.325 |
221.304 |
35.276 |
80.814 |
35.319 |
585.337 |
Civilian Workers |
15.372 |
6.641 |
41.316 |
10.791 |
35.271 |
5.507 |
158.099 |
|
POW's |
29.916 |
43.694 |
179.988 |
24.485 |
45.543 |
29.812 |
427.238 |
|
in % all Italians |
7,7% |
8,6% |
37,8% |
6,0% |
13,8% |
6,0% |
100% |
|
Dutch |
||||||||
Civilian Workers |
22.092 |
4.745 |
87.482 |
9.658 |
32.025 |
18.356 |
270.304 |
|
in % all Dutch |
8,2% |
1,8% |
32,4% |
3,5% |
11,9% |
6,8% |
100% |
|
Soviets |
total |
862.062 |
252.848 |
883.419 |
92.952 |
110.289 |
205.325 |
2.758.312 |
Civilian Workers |
723.646 |
92.950 |
752.714 |
84.974 |
77.991 |
158.024 |
2.126.753 |
|
POW's |
138.416 |
159.898 |
130.705 |
7.978 |
32.298 |
47.301 |
631.359 |
|
in % all Soviets |
28,5% |
8,3% |
29,2% |
3,7% |
3,6% |
6,8% |
100% |
|
Poles |
total |
1.125.632 |
55.672 |
130.905 |
23.871 |
68.428 |
35.746 |
1.688.080 |
Civilian Workers |
1.105.719 |
55.005 |
128.556 |
22.911 |
67.601 |
35.484 |
1.659.764 |
|
POW's |
19.913 |
667 |
2.349 |
960 |
827 |
262 |
28.316 |
|
in % all Poles |
66,7% |
3,3% |
7,5% |
1,4% |
4,1% |
2,1% |
100% |
|
Czechs |
||||||||
Civilian Workers |
10.289 |
13.413 |
80.349 |
10.192 |
44.870 |
18.566 |
280.273 |
|
in % all Czechs |
3,7% |
4,8% |
28,7% |
3,6% |
16,0% |
6,6% |
100% |
|
Total |
2.747.238 |
433.790 |
1.691.329 |
252.068 |
478.057 |
378.027 |
7.615.970 |
|
Civilian Workers |
2.061.066 |
196.782 |
1.397.920 |
206.741 |
349.079 |
277.579 |
5.721.883 |
|
POW's |
686.172 |
237.008 |
293.409 |
45.327 |
128.978 |
100.448 |
1.930.087 |
|
in% |
36,1% |
5,7% |
22,2% |
3,3% |
6,3% |
5,0% |
100% |
|
* Klaus Barwig, Gtinter Saathoff, Nicole Weyde (ed.), EntschadigungfiirNS-Zwangsarbeit, Baden Baden 1998, p. 339 |
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
319
times resulted in odd excesses, when farmers had an ambition to ensure that 'their' foreign workers fared best within the village.
Contrary to the allegations of Prof. Herbert, east-workers in the Third Reich usually arrived in pitifully bad conditions, ragged, shabby, and poorly nourished, as is reported in the quoted testimonies over and over again, and they had to be nursed back first for several weeks before they could be rea- sonably employed. Workshop supervisor Wolf from the district Hammelburg describes the changes:
"[...] thus, within a short period of time, the picture was quite different. Everyone gave clothes and shoes — myself also — and soon these fellows and girls could no longer be distinguished from the village youth. The girls either got ur- chin cuts or had their hair crimped. " P.L. 174 Arb. 1015) Insufficient clothes, especially those of east-workers and Poles, were complemented by old clothes collected by local groups, companies, and private citizens. This was confirmed by mayor Slanina of the district of Rothenburg, among others, about a small town in Lower Silesia:
"[...] As the leader of the district economy office of the district of Rothenburg I confirm also that large quantities of clothes and underwear from collections were given to the employed foreign workers. " (P.L. 170 Arb. 1017)
Wages
Foreign workers received the same wage for their work as their German colleagues, including all extra payments like separation pay and vacation pay as well as reimbursement of travel cost. When in some cases wages paid to foreigners in ag- riculture were somewhat lower than those paid to Germans, this was adjusted through additional benefits, like presents. Espe- cially in rural areas, it turned out to be impossible to implement the initially existing reduced wages for Poles and eastern work- ers, similar as most companies operated according to the motto 'equal wage for equal work.' Thus, through their diligence in piece-work, many foreign workers earned more than German workers. By so doing, they pedantically obeyed the regulations of their recruitment contracts. In one case, for example, Dutch workers received higher wages than the Germans, as accredited engineer Paul-Hans Bonhagen described:
"The Dutchmen were originally contracted to Wil- helmshaven, where a higher wage-rate was paid. When they were employed elsewhere, they kept the pay for which they had contracted. " (P.L. 174 Arb. 1 199) A large part of the foreign workers transferred their wage in part or completely to their families abroad. The legal consultant Gossel explained:
"The DAF always made sure that foreign workers regu- larly transferred certain amounts of money to their families at home. [...] Polish workers came regularly on Sundays in large numbers from the city and district of Hersfeld by rail- road, bicycle, or by foot to Hersfeld for church service without being hindered. " (P.L. 170 Arb. 6) The model character of the treatment and support of foreign workers in the Third Reich does not only emerge from the amount of existing testimony, documents, and photos, but even more so from the fact that in those few cases, where shortcom- ings were recognized, effective remedies were implemented
very quickly. The principal merit for this admirable perform- ance is due to the DAF (German Labor Front), which, with great commitment and based on its experience gained during the years of peace, performed this gigantic task exceptionally well. In the existing documentation, no trace can be found of an alleged 'master-race' thinking, as the victors accused the Ger- mans after the war, but a general social sensitivity in order make it easier for those foreigners to adjust to their new way of living. That still today these facts are stronger than the victor's political propaganda, can be derived when former foreign workers revisit Germany, or when one gets a chance to talk to them abroad. For instance, a pharmacist from Aalen informed this author how he, in 1998 in Taganrog (Black Sea, Russia), was suddenly addressed by an unknown person who identified him as a German, based on an overheard conversation, and en- thusiastically raved about his time as a foreign worker in Aachen during the war.
Vacation, Health Care, Leisure Activities
The foreigners' mail exchange with their home countries, their vacation trips, and last but not least their considerable pos- sessions, which they proudly presented at home, ensured that contradicting propaganda by resistance fighters was generally ignored in the German occupied areas, especially in the far east, where the population knew how to assess the extent of the false propaganda of the Soviets. Until the end of the war, the an- nouncement of special trains for foreign vacationers at the of- fices of the DAF was more convincing than the enemy propa- ganda.
When today Jewish professor Fritz Stern phantazises with- out proof about "almost 6 million murdered forced laborers" {Deutsche National-Zeitung, May 7, 1999), then this has noth- ing to do with reality. Numerous testimonies pointed out the severe penalties which were imposed by the German govern- ment upon those who transgressed against foreign workers. The commercial employee Gehlen reported for example about such a case in the company Rheinmetall in Sommerda, where a warehouse supervisor and a shop foreman, who had beaten for- eigners, were punished on March 17, 1943, with 5 and 2lA years imprisonment respectively, loss of honor, and expulsion from the NSDAP. Death cases of foreign workers, which were lower than the German civilian average, were usually caused by air raids, accidents, or severe illnesses.
It should also be mentioned that the medical care for foreign workers was the same as that enjoyed by the German popula- tion. During child delivery, pregnant foreign women received the same social benefits as German women.
It is surprising to read reports about leisure activities of for- eign workers, which describe artistic and other events in detail, as they were performed by the DAF through a "Kraft-durch- Freude" program (strength through joy). Groups of artists from German occupied countries were contracted to offer their com- patriots a cultural program in their own language. At times of war economy, goods, which were otherwise no longer avail- able, were still distributed to those groups. The DAF employee Karl Carius confirmed such efforts:
"I want to mention that I, among others, had the follow- ing musical instruments manufactured and distributed only
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to foreign workers: 5,000 guitars, 5,000 mandolins, 5,000 balalaikas, 200—300 violins. " (P.L. 170 Arb. 2) This concerned the welfare office of the DAF in Berlin. What is also forgotten in today's descriptions — beyond those absurd assertions about the allegedly bad situation of the foreign workers at that time — is the immediate benefit which foreign workers received for their future life through their often expensive training in German factories.
When disregarding the minor daily irritations, especially when considering the difficult situation caused for the German economy during the war, one has to conclude that already in
those years a sense of a common destiny developed. This feel- ing was not formed by hate, but by mutual understanding and respect, by working together peacefully for years. This was also an essential part, which helped to establish today's European Community.
First published in German as "Fremdarbeiter im Dritten Reich" in Vierteljah- reshefte fur freie Geschichtsforschung 3(4) (1999), pp. 363-372. Translated by Fabian Eschen.
Partisan War and Reprisal Killings
An attempt to organize German reprisals during the military campaign against the USSR
By Dipl.-Chem. Germar Rudolf and Sibylle Schroder
Since the publication of Daniel Goldhagen's book Hitler 's Willing Executioners and the general attention, which the Anti-Wehrmacht propaganda exhibition received in Germany,1 the center of gravity of the discussion about the 'Holo- caust' has changed. At least today the attention is directed less intensively to the alleged high-tech mass murder in "homicidal gas chambers," which are in every regard still totally inconceivable even today, but considerably more to the actual or only claimed mass murder behind the eastern front, allegedly committed above all, but not exclusively, by the so called Einsatzgruppen and committed especially, but not only, against Jews residing in the then Soviet Union. Opinions about this subject vary widely within historical revisionism from positions, which are not very different from the established opinion, to those who deny such mass murders completely. The following article tries to summarize the current knowledge from one revisionist viewpoint, which revised exaggerated claims of mass murder and brings the is- sue into the context of wartime reprisals — and reprisal excesses — against illegal partisans. We hope that this may trig- ger a vivid discussion and a start into further, more detailed research into this field.
Allied Reprisals against Germans
German newspapers rarely carry articles about reprisals threatened or implemented by the western Allies at or after the end of the war. However, the Stuttgarter Zeitung, for example, reported that the French had threatened reprisal executions at a ratio of 1 :25 even in the event that shots would be taken at their soldiers at all, regardless of the actual outcome.2 On April 4, 1992, the Paderborner Zeitung reported an incident where the Americans had taken harsh revenge for the death of their Gen- eral Maurice Rose, who had been shot in regular combat: 110 German men not involved in the event were killed.3 Probably there are a great many more such examples, where harsh repri- sals or unlawful acts of revenge were inflicted on the German population. We know very little today about conditions prevail- ing from 1945 to 1947, especially in West Germany, since these actions on the part of the victors were never prosecuted. The Germans were forbidden to prosecute because of a law that is still in effect today, and the victors, naturally enough, had no particular interest in such prosecution.4 The fact that East and Central Germany saw some dreadful excesses is somewhat more fully documented, on the other hand, since this was in the interests of the anti-Communist western powers.
The Partisan War in the East 1941-1944
Dr. jur. Karl Siegert, Professor at the University of Gottin- gen, drew up a legal expert report shortly after the end of World War Two, in which he showed that reprisal killings were, to a certain degree, common practice and not against international law.5 Hence, reprisals and shootings of hostages can be consid- ered as tactically questionable and possibly as morally repre- hensible, but strictly speaking this was not against the law at that time. This should always be kept in mind when the topic at issue is the reactions of German troops in Russia and Serbia, i.e., in vast regions where a weak occupation power had to bat- tle brutal partisans in order to facilitate the oft-disrupted flow of supplies to the eastern front. Partisan attacks began immedi- ately following the start of the eastern war; certain partisan units deliberately let themselves be overrun, in order then to engage in sabotage behind the advancing German troops and to commit horrific atrocities against soldiers and civilians they caught unaware. Later on, partisan units as large as entire divi- sions were flown into the hinterland of the German troops, or smuggled in through the lines.6
Naturally, the data to be found in the subject literature about the numbers of partisans and the damage they caused vary
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fir
Die
We
lm
Partis
widely, since there are few reliable documents about this kind of unlawful warfare and since the Soviet Union also always had a strong propagandistic interest in the historiography of partisan warfare. The most reliable data seems to be that provided by Bernd Bonwetsch,7 who gives the numbers of partisans as fol- lows: late 1941: 90,000; early 1942: 80,000; mid-1942: 150,000; spring 1943: 280,000; by 1944, skyrocketing to ap- proximately half a million. These figures are based both on So- viet and on contemporaneous Reich-German sources. The dam- age done by the partisans, especially in the area of Byelorussia, is considerably more difficult to quantify. Wilenchik tells of impressive quantities of weapons and ammunition that were allegedly at the partisans' disposal, as well as of extensive crippling of the German supply lines through paralysis of railway lines, especially in 1944. 8 In general terms, this is confirmed by Werner. 9
Regarding the numbers of Ger- man soldiers and civilians killed by partisans, Bonwetsch contrasts the claims from Soviet sources — up to 1.5 million — with those from the German side: 35,000 to 45,000, 10 which he considers to be more reli- able, since allegedly the German sources would have had no reason to minimize the figures. However, he overlooks the fact that it is generally customary in war to downplay one's own losses. Seidler11 recently pub- lished a balanced up-to-date study about the Wehrmacht's struggle in the partisan warfare, showing not only the disastrous and probably de- cisive effects of the partisan's at- tacks against German units and es- pecially their supplies, but he proves also that most of the German reac- tions were totally covered by inter- national law — although not always most far-sighted. Furthermore, he shows that those orders from higher up which broke international laws (e.g., the infamous "Kommissar or- der", which might be considered morally appropriate, but politically
iliiJiillfj.
t.
Milkarische und valkarrecbtlich Dailegungen zur Rriegfuftrung im Os
Pour le Merite
Professor Franz W. Seidler from the University of Munich is one of the few historians who try to keep a balanced view on the events of World War Two and opposes in a very scholarly way. His book on the Wehrmacht in its war against partisans is an excellent example of a thorough refutation of many myths. Castle Hill Publishers will try to publish sev- eral of Prof. Seidler's books in English editions over the next years. Translators working for fair prices as well as financial support for these projects are more than welcome. Please get in touch with us.
way tracks, 16,804 vehicles and a great number of other material supplies of all kinds. "n
The data also diverge greatly regarding the personnel (and concomitant costs) involved in the Germans' efforts to maintain security behind the frontlines: 300,000 to 600,000 persons were needed according to Soviet sources, vs. roughly 190,000 ac- cording to German sources.10
To what degree these data were inflated in order to glorify the partisans is not known, but there is no doubt that the policy of scorched earth13 practiced by the Red Army in their retreat in 1941-42, together with the acts of sabotage and murder by
the partisans, were the major con- tributing factors in the defeat of the German army in the East. The bru- tality with which the Red Army and especially the partisans fought, right from the start of the war and on or- ders from the highest echelons, was described vividly by J. Hoffmann,14 for example, and again recently by A.E. Epifanow15 and Franz W. Seidler16; A.M. de Zayas, in his study of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, also confirmed and corrobo- rated much of the material which the Reich government had already col- lected even in those days to docu- ment the atrocities committed by not only the Red Army.17 De Zayas also reports that the German wartime leaders did not resort to reprisals as a standard matter of course, but rather for the most part after care- fully weighing the pros and cons. Especially in Russia, however, this could not prevent the fact that lower-ranking units, acting on the basis of their own experiences with the Soviet manner of warfare, en- gaged in reprisals (and revenge) not ordered or approved by higher ranks.18 Finally, it must be noted that since July 1943 both the German army and the SS agreed to treat parti- sans like regular combatants, which meant for example that they would not be executed if captured, which was permitted by international law
" ^ ■ ' ..."
m
stupid and judicially untenable) were in most cases sabotaged by the front units, and that these orders, after long-lasting and massive protest, were eventually revoked.
In a book critically discussed by the renowned German his- torians Andreas Hillgruber and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Boris Semionovich Telpuchowsky writes:
"Within three years of the war, the Byelorussian parti- sans eliminated approximately 500,000 German soldiers and officers, 47 Generals, blew up 17,000 enemy military transports and 32 armored trains, destroyed 300,000 rail-
and common practice, but that they would be treated as normal POWs.19This is a measure whose generosity and humanity is, to my knowledge, unheard of anywhere in world history.
As we know today, the German Wehrmacht deployed in the East fought not only for the survival of the Third Reich, but af- ter they abandoned all illusions of imperialism, they also fought for the freedom of all of Europe from Stalinism,20 and there- fore, in light of Prof. Siegert's findings, we must observe that there was nothing unlawful and very little immoral about the merciless battle of the German security forces against unlawful
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Soviet partisans, even if that battle did involve draconic repri- sals. If the official Soviet information about the numbers of German soldiers and/or their allies killed by partisans should be accurate, then it must be noted that reprisal killings of several millions of people (ratio 1:10) would have been theoretically justified. But even the numbers given by German authorities (some 40,000 victims) could have resulted theoretically in re- prisal killings of about 400,000 civilians. It goes without saying that such numbers are horrific, and we can just be thankful that reprisal killings are forbidden nowadays and hope that the law will be observed. We must, however, ask whether such killings actually took place in those days.
Einsatzgruppen for the Fight against Partisans.
The so-called Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD (Security Service) were among others the units in charge of combating the partisans.21 They started with not more than 4,000 men in summer 1941, but at the end of 1942 up to 15,000 Germans and 240,000 natives were involved,22 an increase of manpower which indicates very well the parallel increase of partisan warfare at that time. Considering their relatively un- successful efforts at curbing partisan activity, we must note that these initially numerically weak troops were obviously entirely overwhelmed by their task of policing the enormous region (many hundred thou- sands of square kilometers), which they were in charge of and whose more remote areas were increasingly under the control of partisans.23 Thus it appears a bit ridiculous when H. Hohne states:24
"Heydrich's Death en- voys started their cruel ad- venture: 3,000 men were hunting Russia 's five million Jews. "
Hohne omits to say that at the same time these troops were fighting against some 100,000 partisans. The allegations made against these troops today — namely, that, aside from their hopeless battle against the partisans, they also cooperated with many Wehrmacht soldiers to kill several million Jews as part of the Final Solution — beg the comment that, as Gerald Reitlinger says, this is absolutely unbelievable.25
As documentary evidence for the number of Jews shot by the Einsatzgruppen behind the Russian front, the so-called event reports (Ereignisberichte) are frequently quoted. These reports are said to have been prepared by the Einsatzgruppen, who also supposedly sent them to Berlin, where these docu- ments were found after the war. One of the most well-known experts on the subject of Einsatzgruppen, however, Hans- Heinrich Wilhelm,26 stated as early as in 1988 that he is not cer- tain whether or not the event reports are correct. Because he could show that the statistics in these reports about the number of murdered Jews are unreliable, he warned his colleagues as follows:27
Partisans prepare to blow up a railway track leading from the West to Moscow: The delay and destruction of supplies results in the death often thousands of German Soldiers.
"When the reliability [of these reports] in non- statistically areas is not greater, which can only be verified by comparing them with other sources from the same re- gion, historical research would be well advised to be much more suspicious in future than it was so far when using any SS-sources. "
This remark was only consequential, since he did express similar doubts about the reliability of these documents already in his first book, when he speculated:28
"that here as well at least several ten thousand extermi- nated Jews were added to the report in order to 'improve ' it, which was otherwise thought to be hardly justifiable, be- cause the number of killed partisans was far too low. " Elsewhere he noted that one of the event reports of the Ein- satzgruppen was evidently manipulated by adding a zero to 1,134, thus turning the total to 11,034.29 The forgers — this is what we deal with here — evidently had an interest in suggesting victim counts as high as possible. In case the Einsatzgruppen were the forgers, then one would assume that they believed that somebody in Berlin desired to see as many Jews murdered as possible. But what if someone else was the forger?
The Problem of the Event Reports in the Case of "Babi Yar"
Babi Yar is the name of an erosion ditch system in the vi- cinity of the Ukrainian city of Kyiv. After German troops had conquered Kyiv in September 1941, 33,771 Jews (men, women, and children) were al- legedly shot in Babi Yar on September 29 and 30.
Sources for this are the Er- eignismeldungen and Tatig- keits- und Lageberichte (ac- tion- and situation reports) of the Einsatzgruppen, as well as witness testimonies. Especially important is the Event Report No. 6, report time Sept. 1 to 3 1 , 1941.30 It states:
"The bitterness of the Ukrainian population against the Jews is exceedingly high, because they are blamed for the dynamiting of Kyiv. They are also considered the informer and agents of the NKVD, who are responsible for the terror against the Ukrainian people. All Jews were arrested as re- prisal for the arson in Kyiv and a total of 33, 771 Jews were executed on September 29 and 30. Money, valuables, and clothing were secured and made available to the NSV^1^ for the provision of local German civilians and also partly to the temporary city administration to help needy residents. "
1 . Dynamitings in Kyiv
At this point, a few explanations from established sources are necessary about the dynamiting mentioned in the above Tatigkeits- und Lagebericht. Wilhelm writes about this event:
"When in the week after the occupation [of Kyiv] sev- eral explosions caused considerable personal and material
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damages, this was immediately used as a welcome pretext for 'corresponding retaliatory measures '[...] "32 Gerald Reitlinger explains:
"On the 24th [September 1941], an enormous explosion destroyed the Hotel Continental, in which the military com- mand of the Sixth Army was stationed. The fire spread quickly, and Blobel, who had arrived on the 21s' , had to va- cate his offices. 25,000 people lost their homes, and hun- dreds of German soldiers were killed, mostly while attempt- ing to extinguish the flames. "33
German General Alfred Jodl commented about this in Nur- emberg before the IMT (June 4, 1946):34
"Shortly before that, Kyiv had been abandoned by the Russian armies, and we had barely occupied the town when one detonation after the other occurred. The larger part of the inner city burned down. 50, 000 people lost their homes. We had considerable losses, because during this fire further huge explosives blew up. The local commandant of Kyiv first thought of sabotage by local residents until we cap- tured a detonation chart. This chart listed about 50 or 60 objects of Kyiv, which had been prepared for a long time to be blown up. This was also verified right away by the re- sults of investigations by our pioneers. There were at least 40 such objects ready to be blasted, and most of the detona- tions were to be ignited remotely through radio signals. "
2. Retaliatory Action
It is therefore established that not only the inner city of Kyiv burn down as a result of these detonations — with corre- sponding losses of the local population — but also that the Ger- man troops lost hundreds of soldiers and almost their entire military leadership staff. Both the city's military commandant as well as the Ukrainian population first thought of sabotage. Reprisal shootings for such partisan attacks would have been the normal — and justified — reaction during wartime. Hence, these attacks did not serve "as a pretext," as Krausnick put it.
According to the event report 97 of September 28, 1941, a "public execution of 20 Jews" was planned.35 In the following reports no. 98 (Sept. 29), 99 (Sept. 30) and 100 (Oct. 1)— exactly on those days when the executions were to have oc- curred— no references to such executions can be found.
Only the event reports no. 101 of October 2 and no. 106 of October 7 report of the alleged execution of 33,771 Jews. The description by Krausnick/Wilhelm is not quite clear.36 They do not quote these event reports — something which should be at least expected for the proof of about 34,000 murders — but a quotation from an essay by Alfred Streim of the year 1972. 37 Why did they not use the original text of these event reports — if they exist at all? The conspicuous unclear note "ibid." in Krausnick,38 which may refer to event report no. 101 as well as event report no. 106, cannot be considered sufficient in this case as proof for 33,771 murders.
The question whether or not the report about 33,771 shoot- ings can be found in event report no. 101 or in event report no. 106 is not answered uniformly in the literature, which is an in- dication that none of the authors really checked out the sources, but that one copies always from the other. Hilberg is for event report no. 101, 39 also Klee/DreBen/RieB,40 Reitlinger decided
for event report no. 106, as does Streim, to whom Krausnick referred.42 By the way, Streim distanced himself completely from quoting an event report in a later work, but mentions as the only source the Tatigkeits- und Lagebericht Nr. 6 ( Activity - and Situation Report no. 6). 43 Krausnick refers also to this Tatigkeits- und Lagebericht Nr. 6 for the month of October 1941.
That an event report, which among others lists individual ar- rests and shootings, does not report the execution of 33,771 Jews, is hard to believe, but that seems to be exactly the case.
3. Source Value and Truth of the Event Reports
The work by Krausnick/Wilhelm is the first and only thor- ough study about the activity of the Einsatzgruppen. The au- thors used as the main source for their work the Ereignis- meldungen UdSSR (Event Reports USSR) 44 These event re- ports are only one part of a group of documents, which is la- beled as follows:
1. "Ereignismeldungen UdSSR des Chefs der Sicherheitspo- lizei und des SD" (Event Reports USSR of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD) for the period from June 23, 1941, to April 24, 1942. 194 documents survived from a to- tal of 195.
2. "Meldungen aus den besetzten Ostgebieten vom Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD-Kommandostab" (Reports
Burning German supply train in the Soviet Union.
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from the occupied eastern territories by the Chief of the Se- curity Police and the SD command staff) for the time period of May 1, 1942, to May 21, 1943— there are 55 reports. 3. "Tatigkeits- und Lageberichte der Einsatzgruppen der Si- cherheitspolizei und des SD in der UdSSR" (Activity- and Situation Reports of the Security Police and the SD in the USSR.)45
Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm declared the following about the "event reports USSR as a historic source:"46
"These reports were received always several days later, and not three times daily or at least daily, as with military communications. Trained personnel for the preparation of these reports was not everywhere available. For the trans- mission via radio and telex, mostly third parties, like mili- tary units, had to be used, which caused bothersome prob- lems due to the frequent change in location. Furthermore, the 'reporting discipline ' was simply bad, and this did not change, no matter how much Heydrich fulminated. The sim- plest rules were not followed. For example, exact informa- tion like when and where a reported event occurred were quite frequently missing, which was unthinkable for a mili- tary report. Or the editor of the 'event reports, ' who could always check back with the original notifications when in doubt, forgot to include the data from the message header into the text body, when the data received via telex was dic- tated to a typist, and those typed reports were left un- checked for misunderstandings and typos. Because the Ein- satzgruppen and Kommandos worked at different speeds, messages frequently crossed each other or were frequently left unattended for extended periods of time because of their excessive length and low priority, some events were not only once or twice, but several times transmitted, and occasion- ally a backup message was sent days or weeks afterwards, it is not surprising that the editor at the RSHA[41] mixed up the chronology of events. It seems that they themselves could hardly keep an overview. Very soon, these reports were not complete anymore either. This impression quickly results when comparing, for example, the interim balances about the killing of Jews of some Einsatzkommandos, which came in on a fortnightly basis, with the corresponding individual reports about completed actions. "
The last sentence could be an attempt of an explanation, why, for example, there is evidently no event report about the alleged shooting of 33,771 Jews in Kyiv (Babi Yar) — in case that there really is no such an event report — but only a mention of the execution in the "Tatigkeits- und Lagebericht Nr. 6".
The opinion that there does not exist an event report about these shootings is backed by the explanations of Alfred Streim, which he made
during the Stuttgart Congress from May 3 to 5, 1984, about the subject "The Murder of the European Jews during the Second World War". While talking about the murders in the Babi Yar ravine, he did not refer to an event report, but to the "summary of the executions", i.e., to the "Tatigkeits- und Lagebericht".37
The event reports were transmitted from the front via radio or telex to a department of the RSHA in Berlin. The official in charge there, who was responsible for the final written form of the reports — as they exist today — was Dr. Giinther Knobloch (born 1910). During a hearing by the Central Office Ludwigs- burg in 1959 Knobloch gave the following description about the preparation of the event reports and the Activity- and Situa- tion Reports:48
"From the incoming flood of messages I always marked the interesting parts red and our secretaries knew exactly, in what form to bring these messages. [...] It was important at that time that the messages were quite voluminous. [...] Because of this I saved material from days, when we re- ceived many messages, for days with only a few messages. The messages from the individual Kommandos and Groups were always fded under these Kommandos and Groups, and an error can of course not necessarily be ruled out. [...] Practically no changes in content occurred. [...] / would like to add, however, that SS-Gruppenfuhrer Miiller [...] frequently made handwritten changes also to the actual content. [...] / also had often the impression that the information contained exaggerated events and numbers. [...]
At some time in the year 1942, we had to summarize the daily event reports in fortnightly reports, and later these were even changed to monthly reports. But it is also possi- ble that the sequence was reverse. These summaries were prepared by me as well. [...] These reports were based ex- clusively on the daily event reports. " The "time in the year 1942" mentioned by Knobloch is ei- ther a printing error in the book or Knobloch remembered it wrong, since these Tatigkeits- und Lageberichte exist since June 1941, that is since the very beginning of the Russian cam- paign. The meaning of these summaries, however, is not clear. Why these repetitions in the Tatigkeits- und Lageberichte,
An Eye for an Eye! Left: Killed German Soldiers be- hind the front line, murdered by partisans; below: exe- cution of Soviet partisans.
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which actually, as Wilhelm noticed while comparing them with the event reports, were often no repetitions but new reports?
From both Wilhelm' s and Knobloch's descriptions the fol- lowing can be deducted: reports from the front, prepared by non-qualified persons — some of them in double or even multi- ple versions — were received by the RSHA in Berlin by radio or telex, often with considerable delays. There they were reviewed by Knobloch, important parts highlighted, rewritten by secretar- ies and sent out unchecked and uncorrected as the final event reports. Later on, after weeks, summaries were prepared from these event reports, to which, however, new data were added while others were deleted on an unknown basis. These summa- ries were issued as Tdtigkeits- und Lageberichte (Activity and Situation Reports).
Krausnick and Wilhelm call these reports with their dubious history "authentic" documents. According to the opinion of the same authors, this authenticity is further supported by the fol- lowing: 9
1 . they were captured by the U.S. units;
2. they were cited in Nuremberg in all relevant trials;
3. no defense lawyer ever se- riously attempted to ques- tion their authenticity;
4. the editors who were re- sponsible within the RSHA for their preparation as well as numerous recipi- ents of the report at that time did identify them. Regarding #4, the respon- sible report editor Knobloch testified the following, when photo copies of these reports were submitted to him in Ludwigsburg:50
"The photocopies of the reports submitted to me can be considered as the event reports issued at that time in regards to their form. "
"in regards to their form" — Knobloch said either nothing about their content or we are not told about it!
Although the above mentioned points made by Krausnick and Wilhelm do in no way prove the authenticity of the submit- ted documents, they still could be authentic. However the prob- lem in this case is that the events reported in thes presumably authentic documents are evidently incongruent with reality, as is clear from the descriptions of Wilhelm and Knobloch.
4. Were 33,771 Jews Murdered?
The question of how many Jews were murdered in those two days in Babi Yar is controversial in the literature. Hilberg writes that "the success of the Kyiv action is difficult to evalu- ate".51 According to event report no. 97 of Sept. 9, 1941, 50,000 Jews were intended for the shooting, but then 33,771 were reported. However, Paul Blobel, the leader of the Sonder- kommando 4a, which was responsible for executions, main-
Partisan warfare during the Russian campaign. Similar pictures
became well-known in America only after the U.S. Army ap- plied similar tactics during the Vietnam war.
As a matter of fact, event report no. 97 announced also that the city commandant recommended the public execution of 20 Jews.35 The Soviet document USSR-9, which was submitted during the main trial in Nuremberg, even states that more than 100,000 men, women, children, and elderly people were shot in Babi Yar.53 This number, however, was not mentioned any- where else.
The number generally agreed upon seems to be 33,771. Krausnick maintains that this number was "reported several times",54 namely in an event report, which he does not specify, and in the Tdtigkeits- und Lagebericht no. 6. This would, of course, mean that this number was not reported several times, but maybe only once, and that it was then repeated in a tran- script!
Reitlinger also quotes event reports and action reports, but he confuses their names. When talking about "Activity Re- ports," he actually refers to event reports and vice versa. He also claims that the number of 33,771 is verified, because the "activity report no. 106 and the event report No. 6 both contain the same number 33, 771". 55 Here a transcript of a report is also
supposed to confirm the report itself. It is doubtful whether Reitlinger has even seen "event report no. 106," which he mentions only in his text, because if he had, he probably would have quoted the docu- ment correctly.
For Wolfgang Benz the "number of the murdered" (33,771) "is also corroborated by testimonies of perpetrators, spectators, and several survi- vors of the massacre".56 Her- bert Tiedemann reported ex- tensively about the completely chaotic, arbitrary picture, which those alleged 'wit- nesses' and other reporters drew about Babi Yar, and he has shown that these testimonies can in no way be accepted as proof for anything.57
But how could such a number erroneously slip into the re- ports? Could multiple reports about the same event and typos have led to it? The exact process of this possible number explo- sion can probably not be reconstructed.
There is, however, at least one example for a similar miracle of numbers in the reports of the Einsatzgruppen, which Wilhelm discovered. In a report of the outpost Diinaburg of the Commander of Security Police in Latvia dated Nov. 11, 1941, a number of 1,134 murdered Jews is mentioned. In a summary report of February 1942, the same number was — by typo? — inflated to 11, 034. 58 A zero changed one thousand to ten thou- sand. However, Wilhelm thinks that the latter number is the correct one, because this number is also mentioned in an un- dated report of Einsatzgruppe A.59
In conclusion it can be said that a critical investigation of the documents referred to here has still to be done, not least in
tained later in Nuremberg that no more than 16,000 were shot. order to determine what their exact content is. But based upon
326
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 • No. 3
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The Reichsfiihrer-SS Field-Command Post
December 29, 1942
Subject: Reports to the Ftihrer about
Combat against Bandits.
Report No. 61
Russia-South. Ukrain, Bialystok.
Success of Combat against Bandits from Sept. 1 to Dec. 12. 1942
1.) Bandits:
a) Confirmed Deaths after Combats (x)
August: September: October: November: Total: 227 ~ 381 " 427 302 1337
b) Prisoner immediately executed
125 282 87 243 737
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2. ) Bandit associates and bandit suspects
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1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Jews executed
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21 " ~ 14 " " 42 " 63 140 (x) Since the Russians carry off or immediately bury their killed soldiers, the losses are much higher, even accord- ing to statements of prisoners.
Report no. 51: No letter head, no reference number, no author, no signature, just ink on paper..
known information about the history and origin of these docu- ments, it can concluded that the Ereignismeldungen (event re- ports) and the Tdtigkeits- und Lageberichte (activity and situa- tion reports), even if they are authentic, do — according to scien- tific standards — not conclusively prove the reality of the event described in them. For this, other and qualitatively better evi- dence has to be presented.
5. Certainty Derives from Material Evidence and Unsuspicious Documents only
As a result of the discovery of air photos, we are in the for- tunate position to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this al- leged mass murder did at least not occur at that claimed loca- tion.61 These pictures of Babi Yar, taken by German reconnais- sance planes between 1939 and 1943, prove that this ravine never underwent any noticeable topographic changes, and by a lucky coincidence, a German reconnaissance air plane even made pictures of this area exactly at a time when — according to eye witnesses — the corpses of all the murdered Jews were al- legedly exhumed from their mass graves and supposedly cre- mated on gigantic pyres. Nothing of this is shown on these pic- tures.
Another example of a sensational discovery which was not reported by the mainstream media has a similarly devastating effect upon the thesis of Goldhagen & Co: In the summer of 1996, the city of Marijampol in Latvia decided to erect a me-
morial in memory of the tens of thousands of Jews who were allegedly murdered by the Einsatzgruppen. In order to erect it at the proper place, an attempt was made to locate the exact po- sition of the mass graves. Excavations were therefore carried out at those locations which were identified by witnesses, but — oh wonder — Not a single trace of any mass graves could be found.63 Further excavations in the vicinity of the alleged loca- tions of mass murder did not result in anything else but un- touched virgin soil either.64 Did 'the Germans' commit the per- fect crime by succeeding to completely hide all traces of their mass murder and even restore the soil to its original layering? Could they commit evil wonders after all? Or were the wit- nesses wrong?65
Causes of the East-European Anti-Semitism
Does this mean, that no Jew was ever shot by the SS in the east, the German Wehrmacht, or the Einsatzgruppen! Of course not. It is undeniable that German military units shot numerous civilians behind the front in connection with the "Ban- denkampfe " (combats against partisans), especially in the form of reprisal killings.66 During the war in the east, which was fought with extreme brutality, it is furthermore likely that repri- sal-excesses occurred occasionally, that is, where not only par- tisans and their supporters as well as criminal elements (and possibly also POW's) were killed as reprisals in accordance with international law, but that it also came to killings of inno-
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
327
cent civilians with no connection to reprisals. If this would not have happened on the German side, the German army would be the first in the history of mankind who would consist only of angels, which can be ruled out.
Obviously, in selecting the victims of such reprisals, one would not choose Ukrainians, Byelorussians or members of the Balkan, Baltic or Caucasian peoples, of whom considerable numbers fought in German units. The fact that the Jews were predominantly unpopular amongst these peoples was mainly due to fairly recent causes. In the previous decades many peo- ple had had terrible experiences with Communist commissars, disproportionately many of whom were of Jewish descent, es- pecially in the first few decades of Soviet Bolshevism. The Russian Jewess Sonja Margolina has made some interesting points regarding the involvement of the Russian Jews in the Bolshevist reign of terror:67
"Nevertheless: the horrors of revolution and civil war, just like those of the repressions later, are closely tied to the image of the Jewish commissar. " (p. 47)
"The Jewish presence in the instruments of power was so impressive that even such an unbiased contemporaneous researcher as Boris Paramonov, a Russian cultural histo- rian living in New York, asked whether the promotion of the Jews into leadership positions may perhaps have been a 'gigantic provocation '. " (p. 48)
Margolina has written a particularly detailed analysis of a book which appeared in 1924 under the title Rufiland und die Juden. This book examines the causes of the Russian Jews' conspicuously above-average participation in the excesses of the October Revolution and the dictatorship that followed it, and analyzed the consequences of this involvement. In their ap- peal "7b the Jews in all nations!" the authors of this book dis- cussed by Margolina wrote:
" 'The Jewish Bolsheviki 's overeager participation in the subjugation and destruction of Russia is a sin that already bears within itself the seeds of its retribution. For what greater misfortune could happen to a people than to have its own sons engage in excesses. Not only will this be counted against us as an element of our guilt, it will also be held up to us as reproach for an expression of our power, for a striving for Jewish hegemony. Soviet power is equated with Jewish power, and the grim hatred of the Bolsheviki will transform into a hatred of the Jews [...] All nations and peoples will be swamped by waves of Judeophobia. Never before have such thunderclouds gathered above the heads of the Jewish people. This is the bottom line of the Russian upheaval for us, for the Jewish people. ' " (p. 58) Margolina quotes further from this anthology:
" 'The Russians have never before seen a Jew in power, neither as governor nor as policeman, nor as postal official. There were both good and bad times in those days too, but the Russian people lived and worked and the fruits of their labors were their own. The Russian name was mighty and threatening. Today the Jews are at every corner and in all levels of power. The Russians see them at the head of the Czarist city, Moscow, and at the head of the metropolis on the River Neva and at the head of the Red Army, the ulti- mate mechanism of self-destruction. [...] The Russians are
now faced with a Jew as judge as well as executioner; they encounter Jews at every step, not Communists who are just as poor as they themselves but who nevertheless give orders and take care of the interests of the Soviet power [...] It is not surprising that the Russians, in comparing the past to the present, conclude that the present power is Jewish, and so bestial precisely because of that. '" (p. 60) In the early 1990s, Professor Dr. Ernst Nolte also pointed out the Jews' intimate entanglement in Communism, though naturally he rejects equating the Jews with Bolshevism. Nolte writes:68
"For readily apparent social reasons, was not the per- centage of persons of Jewish extraction particularly great among the participants in the Russian Revolution, different from the percentages of other minorities such as the Latvi- ans? Even at the start of this century Jewish philosophers were still pointing with great pride to this extensive partici- pation of the Jews in Socialist movements. After 1917, when the anti-Bolshevist movement — or propaganda — stressed the topic of the Jewish People 's commissars above all others, this pride was no longer expressed, [...] But it took Auschwitz to turn this topic into a taboo for several decades.
It is all the more remarkable that in 1988 the publica- tion Commentary, the voice of right-wing Jews in America, published an article by Jerry Z. Muller who recalls these indisputable facts — though of course they are open to inter- pretation:
'If Jews were highly visible in the revolution in Russia and Germany, in Hungary they seemed omnipresent. [...] Of the government's 49 commissars, 31 were of Jewish ori- gin [...] Rakosi later joked that Garbai (a gentile) was cho- sen for his post 'so that there would be someone who could sign the death sentences on Saturdays'. [...] But the con- spicuous role of Jews in the revolution of 1917-19 gave anti-Semitism (which 'seemed on the wane by 1914') a whole new impetus. [...] Historians who have focused on the Utopian ideals espoused by revolutionary Jews have di- verted attention from the fact that these Communists of Jew- ish origin, no less than their non-Jewish counterparts, were led by their ideals to take part in heinous crimes — against Jews and non-Jews alike.
Referring to the causal nexus Nolte had postulated between GULag and Auschwitz, Muller concludes:
"The Trotskies make the revolutions [i.e., the GULag] and the Bronsteins pay the bills [in the Holocaust]. " 69 Thus it seems understandable that National Socialism, and the eastern peoples fighting alongside for their freedom, equated the Jews in general with the Bolshevist terror and the activities of the commissars — though such an identification, be- ing sweeping and collective, was unjust. Nevertheless, it is therefore more than plausible that it was Jews, first and fore- most, who were made to pay for the partisan warfare and other war crimes of the Soviets. Anyone who (rightly) criticizes this, however, should also not omit to consider where the blame for this kind of escalation of the war in the East was to be found. And clearly it was to be found with Stalin who, as an aside, had treated the Jews in his sphere of influence at least as merci- lessly ever since the war had begun, as Hitler had.70
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The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
Notes
First published as "Partisanenkrieg und Repressaltatungen" in Vierteljahreshef- te fur freie Geschichtsforschung 3(2) (1999), pp. 145-153. Translated by Fabian Eschen. All but one picture reproduced in this article were taken from the book Die Wehrmacht im Partisanenkrieg by Franz W. Seidler (Pour le Merite, Selent 1998).
1 Just recently, this exhibition has come to the U.S. as well, in a slightly re- vised version; cf. Johannes Heer, Klaus Naumann (ed.), Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1944, Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1995; Klaus Sojka (ed.), Die Wahrheit iiber die Wehrmacht. Reemtsmas Falschungen wider- legt, FZ-Verlag, Munich 1998; Franz W. Seidler, Verbrechen an der Wehr- macht, Pour le Merite, Selent 1998; Bogdan Musial, "Bilder einer Ausstel- lung. Kritische Anmerkungen zur Wanderausstellung 'Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1944" ', Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitge- schichte, 47(4) (1999), pp. 563-591; Krisztian Ungvary, "Echte Bilder - problematische Aussagen" , Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 50(10), (1999), pp. 584-595; Klaus Hildebrandt, Hans-Peter Schwarz, Lo- thar Gall, cf. "Kritiker fordern engultige Schliefiung" , Frankfurter Allge- meine Zeitung, Nov. 6, 1999, p. 4; Ralf Georg Reuth, "Endgiiltiges Aus fur Reemtsma-Schau?" , Welt am Sonntag, Nov. 7, 1999, p. 14; Walter Post, Die verleumdete Armee, Pour le Merite, Selent 1999.
2 hoh, "Die Franzosenzeit hat begonnen", Stuttgarter Zeitung, 25.4.1995
3 Cf. Heinrich Wendig, Richtigstellungen zur Zeitgeschichte, issue 8, Grabert, Tubingen 1995, p. 46. In fact, this has not been a reprisal, but merely a mass murder; cf. also ibid, issue 2 (1991), pp. 47ft; issue 3 (1992), pp. 39ff; is- sue 10 (1997), pp. 44f.
4 One exception is a recently publicized case of the unwarranted murder of 48 German soldiers who had already surrendered: Michael Sylverster Kozial, "US-Kripo ermittelt nach 51 Jahren", Heilbronner Stimme, September 24, 1996; "Spdter Fahndung nach Mordern in US-Uniform", Stuttgarter Zei- tung, September 27, 1996, p. 7.
5 Prof. Dr. jur. Karl Siegert, Repressalie, Requisition und hoherer Befehl, Gottinger Verlagsanstalt, Gottingen 1953, 52 pp; English translation: Ernst Siegert, "Reprisals and Orders from Higher up," in: G. Rudolf (ed.), Dis- secting the Holocaust, 2nd ed., Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, pp. 530-550.
6 Relevant orders were issued by Stalin and were broadcast via all Soviet Russian stations; cf. Keesing's Archiv der Gegenwart, 1941, July 3rd + 21st 1941; cf. Sowjetski Partisani, Moscow 1961, p. 326.
7 Bernd Bonwetsch, "Sowjetische Partisanen 1941-1944" ', in Gerhard Schulz (ed.), Partisanen und Volkskrieg, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gottingen 1985, pp. 99, 101.
8 Witalij Wilenchik, "Die Partisanenbewegung in Weifirufiland' ', in Hans Joachim Torke (ed.), Forschungen zur osteuropdischen Geschichte, v. 34, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, pp. 280f, 285, 288f. This chapter has a cer- tain anti-Fascist undertone.
9 S. Werner, Die 2. babylonische Gefangenschaft, originally self-published by author, Pfullingen 1990; 2nd ed. Grabert, Tubingen 1991, pp. 88-93 (online: vho.org/D/d2bg/I_II.html); English online only (vho.org/GB/Books/tsbc).
10 B. Bonwetsch, op.cit. (note 7), pp. 1 1 If.
11 Franz. W. Seidler, Die Wehrmacht im Partisanenkrieg, Pour le Merite, Selent 1998; cf. Hans Poeppel (ed.), Die Soldaten der Wehrmacht, 3rd ed., Herbig, Munich 1999.
12 B.S. Telpuchowski, Die Geschichte des Grossen Vaterldndischen Krieges 1941-1945, Bernard & Graefe Verlag fur Wehrwesen, Frankfurt/Main 1961, p. 284; comparable Seidler, op. cit. (note 1 1), p. 36f; similar data may also be found in Heinz Kiihnreich, Der Partisanenkrieg in Europa 1939-1945, Dietz, Berlin (East) 1965; for further interesting information, see I.I. Minz, I.M. Rasgon, A.L. Sidorow, Der Grofie Vaterldndische Krieg der Sowjetun- ion, SWA Verlag, Berlin 1947; it is said that the Washington National Ar- chive's document copies regarding partisan warfare in the former Soviet Union have recently been made unavailable to the public. This information and the preceding references are courtesy of Fritz Becker; cf. also Becker, "Stalins volkerrechtswidriger Partisanenkrieg" , Huttenbriefe 15(4) (1997), pp. 3-6 (online: vho.org/D/Hutten/Beckerl5 4.html).
13 Cf. Walter N. Sanning, "Soviet Scorched-Earth Warfare", in The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 6/No. 1, Spring 1985, pp. 92-1 16 (online (German): vho.org/D/DGG/Niederreiter29_l .html).
14 J. Hoffmann, Stalin 's War of Extermination 1941 - 1945, Theses & Disser- tations Press, Capshaw, AL, 2001, pp. 305-327.
15 A.E. Epifanow, H. Mayer, Die Tragodie der deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in Stalingrad von 1942 bis 1956 nach russischen Archivunterlagen, Biblio, Osnabriick 1996.
16 Franz W. Seidler, Verbrechen an der Wehrmacht, Pour le Merite, Selent 1998, pp. 5f. (online: vho.org/D/ vadw/vadw.html); English in preparation.
17 A. de Zayas, Die Wehrmachtsuntersuchungsstelle, 4lh ed., Ullstein, Berlin 1984, passim., esp. pp. 273-307.
18 Ibid, pp. 198-23.
19 Franz W. Seidler, op. cit. (note 6), p. 127
20 Cf. J. Hoffmann, "Die Sowjetunion bis zum Vorabend des deutschen An- griffs", in Horst Boog et al. , Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, vol. 4: Der Angriff auf die Sowjetunion, 2nd ed., Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1987; Hoffmann, "Die Angriffsvorbereitungen der Sowjetunion" , in B. Wegner (ed.), Zwei Wege nach Moskau, Piper, Munich 1991; V. Su-
vorov, Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?, Hamish Hamilton, London 1990; Suvorov, Der Tag M, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1995; E. Topitsch, Stalin 's War: A Radical New Theory of the Origins of the Second World War, Fourth Estate, London 1987; cf. W. Post, Unternehmen Barba- rossa, Mittler, Hamburg 1995; F. Becker, Stalins Blutspur durch Europa, Arndt Verlag, Kiel 1996; Becker, Im Kampf urn Europa, 2nd ed., Leopold Stacker Verlag, Graz/Sruttgart 1993; W. Maser, Der Wortbruch. Hitler, Sta- lin und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Olzog Verlag, Munich 1994. For more detaisl about this combat cf. F. W. Seidler, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 69-132.
Cf. H. Hohne, Der Orden unter dem Totenkopf Bertelsmann, Munich 1976, pp. 328, 339; cf. H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltan- schauungskrieges. Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938-1942, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1981, p. 147, cf. p. 287; Ri- chard Pemsel, Hitler - Revolutiondr, Staatsmann, Verbrecher? , Grabert, Tubingen 1986, pp. 403-407.
For more information about the partisan warfare cf, e.g., Erich Hesse, Der sowjetrussische Partisanenkrieg 1941-1944 im Spiegel deutscher Kampfanweisungen und Befehle, 2nd ed., Muster-Schmidt, Gottingen 1992; John A. Armstrong (ed.), Soviet Partisans in World War II, Univ. of Wise. Press, Madison, Wise, 1964; Tomas Nigel, Partisan Warfare 1941-1945, Osprey, London 1983. H. Hohne, op. cit. (note 22), p. 330.
G. Reitlinger, Die SS, Tragodie einer deutschen Epoche, Desch, Munich
1 957, p. 186; similar Efraim Zuroff, Beruf: Nazijdger. Die Suche mit dem langen Atem: Die Jagd nach den Tdtern des Volkermordes, Ahriman, Frei- burg 1996, p. 44, were he says that 3,000 men, "mobil killing units, whose task was to kill all Jews and communist officials in the area occupied by the Wehrmacht." This included the huge area "from the suburbs of Leningrad in the north to the Asov sea in the south.[. . .] Their weapons were conventional firearms. Nevertheless they succeeded in killing 900, 000 Jews in 15 months." Zuroff wonders, but he has no doubts. This has been possible, ac- cording to Zuroff, because of the "fanatic support by the native population." (p. 47) That there has been a massive partisan warfare in the back of the fighting German army is either unknown to Zuroff or he is not interested in it.
Together with Helmut Krausnick co-author of the famous book Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges, (The Troop of the War of Ideology) op. cit. (note 17).
H. -H. Wilhelm, lecture during an international history conference at the university Riga, September 20-22, 1988, p. 1 1. Based on this recital Wilhelm wrote the article "Offene Fragen der Holocaust-Forschung" (Open Question about the Holocaust Research) in U. Backes, E. Jesse, R. Zitel- mann (ed.), Die Schatten der Vergangenheit, Propylaen, Berlin 1992 S. 403, which however does not contain this section. I obtained this information from Costas Zaverdinos, who had the manuscript of Wilhelms Riga lecture and who reported about this during the opening speech of the history con- ference on April 4, 1995 at the university of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p. 515.
Ibid., p. 535.
Document R- 1 02 in Der Prozefi gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militdrgerichtshof (IMF), vol. 1 - XXXXII, Niirnberg 1947-1949, here vol. XXXVIII, 279-303, here p. 292f. Nationalsozialistischen Volkswohlfahrt, National Socialist People's Welfare H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p. 189. Gerald Reitlinger, Die Endldsung. Hitlers Versuch der Ausrottung der Ju- denEuropas 1939-1945, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin41961, p. 262. IMT, XV, p: 362; vol. XV, p. 363: "Es waren game Stdbe in Kiew [...] in die Luft geflogen."
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p. 189, Fn 161. Ibid., p. 190.
Alfred Streim, "Zum Beispiel: Die Verbrechen der Einsatzgruppen in der Sowjetunion" , in: Adalbert Ruckerl (Hrsg.), NS-Prozesse. Nach 25 Jahren Strafverfolgung. Moglichkeiten - Grenzen - Ergebnisse, CF. Mtiller, Karls- ruhe 1972.
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p. 190, note. 164, all sources are otherwise exactly quoted.
Raul Hilberg, Die Vernichtung der europdischen Juden. Die Gesamtge- schichte des Holocaust, OUe & Wolter, Berlin 1982, p. 213, FN 59. Ernst Klee, Willi DreBen, Volker RieB (Hg.), "Schdne Zeiten ". Judenmord aus der Sicht der Tater und Gaffer, S. Fischer, Frankfurt/M. 1988, S. 69. Op. cit. (note 27), p. 263. Op. cit. (note 31), p. 86f.
Alfred Streim, "Zur Eroffnung des allgemeinen Judenvernichtungsbefehls gegeniiber den Einsatzgruppen" , in: Eberhard Jackel, Jiirgen Rohwer (Hg.), Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Entschluflbildung und Ver- wirklichung, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1985, S. 114. H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p. 336. Ibid., p. 649. Ibid., p. 335f.
Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Main Office. H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p. 337f. Ibid., p. 335. Ibid, p. 338.
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329
51 Op. cit. (note 33), p. 227, notel45
52 Affidavit of 6.6.1947, NO-3824.
53 See IMT, VII, S. 612.
54 Op. cit. (note 17), p. 190.
55 Op. cit. (note 27), p. 263.
56 Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.), Legenden, Liigen, Vorurteile, dtv, Munchen 1990, p. 40.
57 "Babi Jar: Kritische Fragen und Anmerkungeri\ in: Ernst Gauss (Ed.), Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, Grabert, Tubingen 1994, p. 375-399.
58 Op. cit. (note 17), p. 535.
59 IMT, vol. XXX, S. 74.
60 U. Walendy pointed out that these reports could not possibly be designated as documents: no letter head, no signature, no file number or letter-diary number. It is simply a piece of paper written on it: U. Walendy, "Babi Jar - Die Schlucht 'mit 33.771 ermordeten Juden'?", Historische Tatsachen Nr. 51, Verlag fur Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Vlotho 1992, p. 21, as usual written with a 'hot' pen, but still a good starting point; see also: Hi- storische Tatsache~Nr. 16 & 17, "Einsatzgruppen im Verband des Heeres", parts 1 & 2,ibid, 1983.
61 See J.C. Ball, Air Photo Evidence, Ball Recource Services Ltd., Delta B.C., 1992; ders., in: E. Gauss (Hg.), Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, Grabert, Tubingen, S. 235-248.; vgl. H. Tiedemann, ibid., p. 375-399.
62 From: G. Fleming, Hitler and the Final Solution, University of California Press, Berkeley 1984, ill. 6, pp. 92f. (source: The Nizkor Project: www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/german/einsatzgruppen/images/
63 Lietuvos Rytas (Latvian news paper), August 21,1 996.
Personal message from Dr. M. Dragan.
I will not elaborate here on the equally problematic gas wagons allegedly also utilized by the Einsatzgruppen; see Ingrid Weckert in E. Gauss (Ed.), op. cit. (note 50), p. 193-218.
For the time between Jan. 1, 1943, and Oct. 31, 1944 (22 months), the Ger- man authorities have claimed 145,364 persons killed in the partisan warfare, 88,493 imprisoned, and 90,993 civilians "registered", i.e., either sent into camps or otherwise punished; cf. F. W. Seidler, op. cit. (note 12). S. Margolina, Das Ende der Liigen, Siedler, Berlin 1992. E. Nolte, "Abschliefiende Reflexionen iiber den sogenannten Historiker- streit", in U. Backes, E. Jesse, R. Zitelmann (eds.), Die Schatten der Ver- gangenheit, Propylaen, Berlin 1992, pp. 83-109, here pp. 92f. J.Z. Muller, "Communism, Anti-Semitism and the Jews", in Commentary, issue 8, 1988, pp. 28-39; for a more ideological approach to National So- cialist anti-Semitism cf. Erich Bischoff, Das Buck vom Schulchan aruch, Hammer Verlag, Leipzig 1929; on this expert opinion one of the best known National Socialist anti-Semites, Theodor Fritsch, relied heavily: T. Fritsch, Handbuch zur Judenfrage, 31s1 ed., Hammer- Verlag, Leipzig 1932; a comparison to modern Jewish critics of Judaism is extremely revealing, cf . Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Pluto Press, London 1994 (online: codoh.com/zionweb/zishahak/zishahakanO 1 .html). Regarding the question of the involvement of Jews in the soviet partisan warfare against German troops cf. E. Jackel, P. Longerich, J. H. Schoeps (eds.), Enzyklopddie des Holocaust, Argon, Berlin 1993, p. 1348; cf. Ne- chama Tec, Defiance, the Bielski Partisans, Oxford University Press, New York 1993.
The "Gassing" of Gypsies in Auschwitz on August 2, 1 944
By Carlo Mattogno
1. The Historical Reconstruction by Danuta Czech
According to the official historiography, 2,874 gypsies, ac- commodated in the so-called "gypsy-family-camp" within camp Bile, had been gassed, in Birkenau, on August 2, 1944.
Danuta Czech delivers a most detailed reconstruction of this alleged mass-murder in Kalendarium} The structure of her ar- gumentation is the following: There were 1,518 internees2 in the camp Bile on July 30th. On August 1, the corresponding number increased to 2,815. Danuta Czech comments:3
"This is probably the total number of all men and
women. "
On August 2nd, 1944, the population of the camp Bile rose again, namely to 2,885 internees, yet the total number of the gyp- sies (including those in the camps Blla, Blld and Bllf) amounted to 2,898 persons, "probably men and women"? Danuta Czech goes on with her historical reconstruction as follows:4
"In the afternoon, an empty train was made available on the railway ramp in Birkenau., 1,408 male and female gyp- sies, selected from camp Bile and from the blocks 10 and 11 of the main camp of the KL [concentration camp] Auschwitz, were brought to the train. They were to remain alive, and transferred to other concentration camps. The people de- parting said good-bye through the fence to the gypsies stay- ing behind at camp Bile. About 7 p. m., the train left the ramp of Birkenau. On the train, there were 918 men, among them 105 boys between 9 and 14 years of age, and 490 women. The destination of the train was the KL Buchen- wald. On the 3rd and 4th of August, the 1,408 male and fe- male gypsies were still registered in the labor force lists of the KL Auschwitz II, with the remark that they are being
transferred to another camp. They would be struck out of the camp prisoner list only after the verification of having been taken in by camp Buchenwald. [...]
After the evening assembly, there was lockdown in KL Auschwitz II, and block-closure was organized in the gypsy- family-camp. The camp Bile and some other dwelling bar- racks wherein gypsies were accommodated were sur- rounded by armed SS-personnel. Trucks, which were there to take 2,897 defenseless women, men and children to the gas chambers in the crematorium, would drive into the camp,
Here it should be pointed out that the number of the alleg- edly gassed gypsies contains a glaring arithmetic mistake: if there had been altogether 2,898 gypsies, and 1,408 thereof have been transferred, it is completely impossible that 2,897 were "gassed"! The number of the "gassed" would rather amount to (2,898—1,408 =) 1,490.
2. The Documents
Other than this arithmetic blunder, Danuta Czech's recon- struction is based on indisputable facts, which follow the series of reports pertaining to the subject "labor-force" in the men's camp of Auschwitz II (Birkenau).
On July 30th, the population of the "gypsy-camp" was 1,518 persons.5 On the 1st of August (the report of July 3 1st is not pre- served), 2,815 persons were recorded,6 on the 2nd of August 2,885 persons.7 On August 3, the heading "gypsy-camp popula- tion" did not appear any more, and the 1,408 gypsies were reg- istered in connection with camp Bile under heading "transfer gyp.[sies]".8
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Thus, apparently, on August 3rd, (2,885—1,408 =) 1,477 gypsies disappeared from camp Bile. What happened to them?
Before answering this question, we must raise another, not less important question: Has D. Czech correctly interpreted the documents on the subject?
3. The Interpretation of the Documents
At the end of July and the beginning of August, 1944, the men's camp of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) included the following camps: Bla, Blla, Blld, Bllf, Bllg. They figure under these des- ignations also in the pertaining reports on "labor-force".
The camp Bile accommodated male and female gypsies, therefore one also spoke of the "gypsy-family-camp" . Logically, however, the men belonged to the men's camp, and the women to the women's camp, and therefore, the camp Bile never ap- peared before August 3rd in the series of reports pertaining to the subject "labor-force" . The male internees of this camp are registered under a special heading with the name "gypsy-camp population" .
As we have seen, on the 1st of August, 1944, the population of the gypsy-camp increased from 1,518 to 2,815. Where did these (2,815 — 1,518 =) 1,297 new internees come from? D. Czech assumes that the ones in question were without excep- tion gypsies. But, why should women have registered as resi- dents of the men's camp? The hypothesis is not very thought out, and seems to be entirely unfounded.
As Gerald Reitlinger already has emphasized, the female gypsies of the women's section of camp Bile were transferred to Ravensbriick on August 1st, 1944.9
The source, quoted by the British- Jewish historian for this statement, confirms factually, that the transport departed on August 1st from Auschwitz, and arrived on August 3rd in Ravensbriick; and explains:10
"The transport, which arrived from Auschwitz on 8. 3. 44, was solely comprised of the still surviving female gyp- sies of the camp Birkenau. "
D. Czech's allegation, that 918 male and 490 female gypsies were transferred to Buchenwald, is wrong, as 9 1 8 male, but no female gypsies have been sent into that camp. The only docu- mentary source quoted by D. Czech in this connection is a letter of the resident SS-physician of the Waffen-SS, on August 5th, 1944, concerning the theme "Gypsy-transport on 8. 3. 44 from KL Auschwitz", in which 918 gypsies are mentioned, 105 of them belonging to the generation 1930 to 1939 (hence, they were 9 to 14 years old), and two were over 65 years old.11 By the way, one does not really understand how these children and old people could have escaped the "gas-chambers". . .
Also, the "list of new arrivals from the Is' of July, 1944" of the KL Buchenwald mentions only one transport for the 3rd of August: that of 918 "gypsies from the KL Auschwitz"}2 Finally, the Report of the Netherlands' Red Cross confirms the arrival of one single gypsy-transport to Buchenwald on the 3rd of Au- gust, 1944. These gypsies have been allocated the internee- numbers 74084-74998, which corresponds to 915 persons. This provides further evidence that these internees came from the gypsy-camp of Birkenau, and that the female gypsies were not sent to Buchenwald, but to Ravensbriick.13 Since in Buchen- wald only this one transport with 918 gypsies arrived, it is clear
that a further transport with 490 gypsies must have been sent to another camp.
Of course, the fact remains, that from July 30th to the 1st of August, the gypsy camp population increased from 1,518 to 2,815. After we have established that the new arrivals could not be gypsies, the question is to clarify who they were.
The documents enable us to answer this question very clearly.
On July 30th, 1944 one transport with 1,298 Jews from Ra- dom arrived in Birkenau, registered in the camp's population list, and allocated the internee-numbers A-18647 to A-19944.14 Still, in the report pertaining to the subject "labor-force" from August 1st, every reference to them is missing, as well as under the heading "new arrivals", (that does not appear here at all), and under the heading "quarantine of new arrivals", under which only 968 internees in the camp Blla are registered. (The last mentioned compose one part of the 1,318 internees, who appear in the report of July 30th.) The 1,298 newly arrived Jew- ish internees are not mentioned in the report of August 2nd ei- ther, in which there is talk of 965 internees, who dwell in the camp Blla in "quarantine of new arrivals" (compared with the previous day when under the heading "new arrivals", two "newborns" were listed).
Also occurring for the first time ever in camp Bile, 1,415 internees and also another 547 persons are listed under the heading "quarantine of new arrivals, internees" in the report of August 3rd. This heading furthermore includes 16 internees in camp Bla as well as 1 ,797 in camp Blla.
The quarantine-list, compiled by the internee Otto Wolken, enables us to reconstruct the demographics of the internees, taken into the "quarantine of new arrivals" of the camp Blla.
The 1,797 internees, registered on August 3rd, are catego- rized as follows:
- 1,614 from Blyzyn (July 31th), numbers of registration: B- HOtoB-2902,
- 129 from Kaunas (August 1st), numbers of registration: B- 2274 to B-2902,
- 54 from a mixed transport (July 31st), numbers of registra- tion 190656 to 19070715 and A-19945 to A-19946.
Those 547 internees, recorded in the category "new arri- vals" in the camp Bile, were Jews from Radom, who became registered on August 2nd in the camp population with the num- bers B-2903 to B-3449.16 Thereby is the "quarantine-list" cor- roborated: the above mentioned 1,298 Jews have not been placed in the quarantine-camp Blla. Now, if they were with certainty registered in Birkenau, but are neither entered in the reports under the heading "new arrivals" nor under the heading "quarantine of new arrivals", what happened to them?
The final conclusion is unavoidable: they have been ac- commodated in the camp Bile, the population of which accord- ingly rose to (1,528 + 1,298 =) 2,816. The difference of one person is explained by the fact that the number of gypsies for July 31 is unknown, but undoubtedly sank from 1,518 to 1,517.
Consequently, of the 2,815 internees to be found in the gypsy-camp on August 1st, 1944 were 1,517 gypsies and 1,298 Jews from Radom.
On August 2nd, the population of the camp Bile amounted to 2,885 persons. In the other camps, there were altogether 13
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gypsies: one in Blla, five in Blld and seven in Bllf. On August 3rd, only one gypsy stayed in camp Bllf.
Also on August 3rd, the heading "gypsy-camp population" disappears from the reports pertaining to the subject "labor- force", and for the first time the camp Bile appears there, in which those 547 deportees, whose identity we have already es- tablished, are registered under the heading "new arrivals". Fur- ther, under the heading "quarantine of new arrivals" 1,415 de- portees, neither coming from outside of the camp, nor from the quarantine-camp Blla, are listed. It is therefore unambiguous, that these already lived in the camp Bile, and belonged to the above-mentioned 2,885 deportees. Further, on August 3rd, there were 1,408 gypsies reported who are being "transferred": they too, belong to these deportees. Finally, there are another 72 de- portees registered in camp Bile under the heading "employed'.
If we add up these numbers, we can ascertain, that on Au- gust 3rd, there were formally (1,415 + 1,408 + 72 =) 2,895 de- portees in the camp Bile, of which 1,408 (the transferred) actu- ally existed only on paper.17 On August 2nd, there were still 2,885, but 12 of the 13 gypsies, who stayed in other camps, were listed again in camp Bile, so that the population of the camp on August 3rd should have been actually 2,897. Two resi- dents of the camp Bile have been presumably transferred, or died, because on the August 3rd, there were only 2,895 deport- ees.
Consequently, we can be certain that the story about the gassing of the gypsy-camp is not grounded in historical fact.
Notes
First published as "Die 'Vergasung' der Zigeuner in Auschwitz am 2.8. 1944" in Vierteljahreshefte fur freie Geschichisforschung, 7(1) (2003), pp. 28f. Trans- lated by Zoltan Bruckner.
1 D. Czech, Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrations lager Auschwitz- Birkenau 1939-1945, , Rohwolt Verlag, Reinbek 1989, p. 837 f.
2 Ibid, p. 833.
3 Ibid, p. 837.
4 Ibid.,p.m.
5 APMO (Archiwum Panstwowego Muzeum w. Oswiecimiu), sygn. AUII- 3a/17, p. 33a, 'Arbeitseinsatz fur 30. Juli 1944" (labor deployment for July 30, 1944).
6 Ibid, p. 35, as above, Aug. 1, 1944.
7 Ibid, p. 37, as above, Aug. 2, 1944.
8 Ibid, p. 39, as above, Aug. 3, 1944.
9 G. Reitlinger, Die Endlosung. Hitlers Versuch der Ausrottung der Juden Europas 1939-1945, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1992, pp. 837f.
10 Het Neederlandisch Roode Kruis, Auschwitz, Deel VI, (part 6), s- Gravenhage, Maart 1952, p. 107.
1 1 This document has been published in the first German edition of the Kalen- darium, op. cit. (note 1), vnHefte von Auschwitz, Verlag Staatliches Au- schwitz-Museum, no. 8, 1964, p. 113.
12 NO-1300.
13 As note 10, pages 39f.
14 APMO, Ruch oporu, T. XXc. Sygn. D-RO/123, list of the Jew transports, p. 18.
15 The quarantine list mentions 53 deportees; numbers 190656 to 190706, but one deportee, who arrived from Majdanek, received the number 190707.
16 APMO, sygn. D-AUII-3/4, quarantine list, p. 6.
17 Deportees transferred to other camps were officially as parts of the camp- strength registered, until the camp, into which they were sent, their arrival reported.
A Case Study of Holocaust Revisionism and the Mass Media
By Paul Grubach
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Ohio's largest newspaper and one of the 20 largest in the country, typifies many big city newspapers in the United States — Jewish owned, pro-Zionist, and it aggressively promotes the traditional view of the Holo- caust and a distorted image of Holocaust revisionism.1
In a recent issue there was an editorial attack upon myself and the Holocaust revisionist movement in general.2 The arti- cle's author, Elizabeth Sullivan, is The Plain Dealer's foreign- affairs columnist and an associate editor of the editorial pages. Although my name was not mentioned, she was clearly refer- ring to me. Let it suffice to say that the manner in which she deals with Holocaust revisionism typifies how the mass media in general deals with the subject.
Since 2000 I have carried on an on-going email exchange with her about political Zionism, war crimes trials, and the problems in the Middle East. The best way to deal with her claims about Holocaust revisionism is simply to list them along with my rebuttal. To ensure fairness, Sullivan was allowed to view many of the following rebuttals prior to publication, and if need be, correct any possible errors. Not surprisingly, she did not respond.
Sullivan begins the essay with the claim that Holocaust re- visionists "deny that they deny." In other words, we allegedly refuse to even admit that we deny the "reality of the Holo- caust." Nothing could be further from the truth. Holocaust revi- sionists simply reject those aspects of the traditional view of the Holocaust that are demonstrably false, such as the existence of homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz.
She then quotes from an essay of mine that appeared in the online edition of the Oregon Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon's student newspaper:3
"Holocaust revisionists do not deny that atrocities were committed against Jews during WWII. However, they con- tend there was no Nazi plan to exterminate world Jewry, the 'Final Solution ' being no more no less than their expulsion from Europe. The Nazis did incarcerate Jews in concentra- tion camps, but there were no 'gas chambers ' for mass murder in them. And finally, the claim of 6,000,000 mur- dered Jews is an irresponsible exaggeration, as the number killed was far less. "
It is most interesting to note how Sullivan selectively quoted from my essay, and omitted to inform her readers of one
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of the most powerful pieces of scientific evidence that supports the Holocaust revisionist position — The Rudolf Report . Written by the German chemistry expert Germar Rudolf who was sup- posed to receive his Ph.D. from the prestigious Max-Planck- Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany, it is a forensic report on the chemical and technical aspects of the al- leged "gas chambers" of Auschwitz, and it quite persuasively demonstrates that these homicidal devices never existed.4 I be- lieve that Sullivan failed to inform her readers of The Rudolf Report because she denies the fact that there is hard scientific evidence that undermines her traditional view of the Holocaust, and she does not want her readers to know this. Thus, I believe that the charge of denial hurls right back into her face.
Sullivan continues:
"I no longer answer this man 's e-mail. His extremism
seems unbridgeable by reason or words. "
This is false and defamatory and I think she knows it. It is a matter of public record that Paul Grubach condemned things like National Socialist extremism. You can read my article about this at http://www.codoh.org/revisionist/tr08notnazi.html. As a firm believer in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, I believe in working legally and peacefully within the American political system to attain my ends. I am not now, nor was I ever, a member of any extremist political organization (i.e., any organization that advocates the violent overthrow of the gov- ernment or illegal violence against any identifiable group). As an intellectual and scholar, I believe that controversial issues should be settled by peaceful debate. As one who is trained in the scientific method, I am more than willing to listen to the voice of reason and scientific method. If you can falsify my Holocaust revisionist beliefs with facts and evidence, I will be more than willing to give them up.
As one can see from this, there is nothing "extremist" about me. The reason that Sullivan resorted to the false canard that 'Grubach is an extremist' is because she is intellectually impo- tent and psychologically insecure. She cannot refute my argu- ments, so she resorts to fallacious ad hominem attacks in an at- tempt to 'discredit the message by defaming the messenger.' According to two experts on political extremism, a characteris- tic of a real extremist is that he or she indulges in irresponsible accusations and character assassination.5 Thus, the label of "ex- tremist" may very well apply to Elizabeth Sullivan.
Since the beginning of our correspondence, I have refuted some of her beliefs and exposed her hypocritical double stan- dards over the internet. In one article I exposed her hypocritical double standard in regard to 'war crimes' trials. She was pub- licly in favor of another trial for accused 'Nazi war criminal' John Demjanjuk, but she refused to publicly advocate war crimes trials for Jews that committed war crimes against Germans.6 In the fall of 2002, she tried to convince me that Jewish-Zionist forces were not trying to push the United States in a war with Iraq. Again, I publicly exposed the falsity of her beliefs, as Jew- ish-Zionist forces were indeed one of the forces pushing for war with Iraq.7 In short, I suspect she is angry and embarrassed that I refuted her beliefs and exposed her questionable journalism.
Elizabeth Sullivan continues:
"Like a gnat, though, he keeps disturbing me with his
messages of hate and his denial of history. It even seems
that his messages have become more frequent and more im- perious of late, as though it 's once again OK to be open about anti- Jewish feelings. "
Sullivan, a journalist with a large readership, has written ex- tensively about the U.S. -Iraq war, the Arab-Zionist conflict, Middle Eastern issues, at least one article about the Demjanjuk 'Nazi war crimes' trial, and now Holocaust revisionism. Since this is also my beat, it is only logical that I should attempt to correct her false beliefs and hypocritical double standards in the hope that she transmits these corrections to her numerous read- ers. I believe that Sullivan is secretly afraid that I am exposing her false beliefs and double standards, and thus, lessening her professional stature.
In addition, she is clearly accusing me of harboring an "anti-Semitic hatred of Jews." The charge of "anti-Semitism" is the last refuge of a scoundrel — an ideological weapon used by the Jewish power elite and their gentile allies like Elizabeth Sullivan to silence all rational criticism of Jewish behavior and power. To call a spade a spade, the charge of "anti-Semitism" in the hands of a Jewish-owned, pro-Zionist newspaper is a method of waging intellectual terrorism. By employing this ideological weapon, they can strike fear in the minds of the readership, and decrease the odds that anyone will dare speak out against the lies and exaggerations in the Holocaust legend.
Furthermore, she confuses "hatred of Jews" with moral out- rage directed against the negative and dark side of Jewish influ- ence. I don't hate Jews — but I do in fact feel a sense of moral outrage about the wrongs that certain Jewish groups commit.
If Sullivan wants to complain about messages of hate, she should condemn the open message of hate of one of the primary promoters of her traditional view of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel. This hateful Holocaust guru wrote:8
"Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set aside a
zone of hate — healthy, virile hate— for what the German
personifies and for what persists in the German. To do oth- erwise would be a betrayal of the dead. "
But she would not dare criticize Wiesel, for if she did con- demn Holocaust promoter Wiesel for his message of hate, her career in journalism would be in serious jeopardy.
Sullivan continues:
"Too many people in the world still believe in a Jewish
conspiracy — and still deny that the Holocaust was what it
was. "
Certain groups of Jews do in fact engage in conspiracies. Let me give three simple examples. In his private journals, Moshe Sharrett, one of the founding fathers of the state of Is- rael, revealed the conspiratorial activities of the Israeli cabinet during the years of 1953 and 1956. Acts of terrorism were planned, the purpose of which was to intimidate and demoralize Middle Eastern Arabs, and to create a climate of fury and ad- venturism among Israeli Jews.9 The 'Lavon Affair' is another classic example of a Jewish-Zionist conspiracy. In 1954, the Modiin, an Israeli military intelligence organization, activated a ring of spies in Egypt. These agents carried out acts of sabotage against certain British and American installations in the hope that the British and Americans would think Arab radicals were responsible. This would have helped to turn America and Brit- ain against Egypt. The saboteurs were eventually captured. This
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Israeli-Jewish conspiracy had a profound effect upon Middle Eastern politics.10 Finally, as we shall see in a moment, during the founding years of Israel the Zionist military leadership con- sciously conspired to reduce the number of Arabs in the Jewish state to a minimum.
What proof does Sullivan offer that mass murders in 'gas chambers' took place in Auschwitz? She mentions the Ausch- witz crematoria. They do not 'prove' that mass murders took place in 'gas chambers.' The crematoria were necessary to dis- pose of the bodies of inmates who died from typhus epidemics or other natural causes.
She then talks about the mountains of shoes, suitcases, eye- glasses, and artificial limbs of former Auschwitz inmates. In her own words:
"When Soviet troops got to the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, they found 7,000 emaciated souls, and warehouses crammed with the detritus of lives snuffed out, including 7 tons of hair already baled for sale. There were 836,255 women's outfits, according to USA TODAY, and 348,820 men 's suits. There were 43,525 pairs of shoes. And that was just in the warehouses the Nazis hadn 't burned. " Here she is saying that the Germans cut the inmates' hair, took their clothes, and then murdered them in 'gas chambers.' This is not so. Each inmate had his or her head shaved because of the lice problem, so of course there would be piles of hair. Since all inmates were issued a camp uniform, their civilian clothes were confiscated. Glasses, shoes and artificial limbs of the deceased were also confiscated. All of these things were then used for the German war effort. The clothes, shoes, hair, glasses and artificial limbs do not prove that mass murders in gas chambers took place in the camp. (There was a high death rate though from typhus epidemics.)
Don't misunderstand me. It was certainly wrong and evil for the National Socialists to incarcerate innocent Jews in concen- tration camps, and there is no doubt in my mind that many Jews and non-Jews did suffer horribly at Auschwitz. But it is also wrong for the Jewish-Zionist power elite and their gentile allies to promote false claims about the Jewish experience in those camps. Just because Jews and others suffered at Auschwitz, this gives them no license to promote falsehoods about their experi- ences in Auschwitz.
The Plain Dealer political pundit writes:
"About 1 million Jews died at the camp, along with tens of thousands of Gypsies, Poles, Germans and others. That one complex accounted for 10 percent of the victims of the Holocaust. "
What Sullivan fails to point out is that at the end of WW II, Soviet officials 'authoritatively determined' that approximately 4,000,000 people were murdered at Auschwitz.11 This figure was based upon the evidence of hundreds of surviving prisoners and the opinion of experts. Now we are told that figure is incor- rect, and in 1990, the 'correct' number of deaths at Auschwitz was alleged to be about 1.1 million,12 a figure which has subse- quently been reduced by various scholars, to reach a new minimum of about half a million in spring of 2002. 13 This is no small revision, as the Soviets exaggerated the 'true' figure by four to eight times. But most importantly, Israeli historian Ye- huda Bauer said in 1989 that it is time to finally acknowledge
that the four million figure is a deliberate myth.14 This shows that false evidence was used to 'prove' the traditional view of the Holocaust, and survivors and Holocaust experts can be wrong. Sullivan then points out that the Holocaust ideology was used by the Bush Administration to 'justify' the U.S. attack upon Iraq. Our Plain Dealer foreign affairs 'expert' quipped:
"The intended political message was to underscore the
rightness of what America did in uprooting the evil Saddam
Hussein in Iraq. "
Sullivan's traditional view of the Holocaust is an 'ideology' in the Marxist sense of the term: a set of ideas and values, un- true in the main, that has the function of 'justifying' and 'le- gitimizing' some aspect of the sociopolitical order. At last count at least 3,240 Iraqi civilians were killed — the final death toll is sure to be significantly higher.15 Bush invoked the Holo- caust ideology in order to 'justify' and 'legitimize' the U.S.- Iraq war, and 'console' the masses about its negative conse- quences. After all, so the 'reasoning' goes: 'Yes, the U.S. attack upon Iraq resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocents, but the U.S. had to do it in order to prevent another Nazi-like Holo- caust. We are just going to have to accept the deaths of thou- sands of Arabs in order to prevent a far greater evil' What is ironic is that the Holocaust ideology is being used to 'justify' a war that Sullivan is on record as opposing!
In a direct, literal sense, the Holocaust doctrine has become a threat to human life, for it is an ideological weapon that 'justi- fies' war and ethnic cleansing. For this reason alone the Holo- caust revisionist policy of subjecting it to intense scrutiny is wholly justified. If we Americans are going to send our soldiers off to kill and die on foreign soil, then we have the moral duty to publicly scrutinize all of those doctrines that are used to promote and 'justify' such actions. But I believe that neither Sullivan nor The Plain Dealer has the moral integrity to give Holocaust revisionism a fair and public hearing.
In Israel, Zionism created an Athenian democracy for Jews but second-class citizenship, even feudal servitude for non- Jews. Modern Israel is a racially segregated, apartheid state where Jews lord over non-Jews, especially Palestinian Arabs.16 Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon virtually acknowl- edged that Israel is oppressing millions of Palestinian Arabs, as he stated:17
"It is not possible to continue holding three and a half million people under occupation. "
Sullivan must be aware of this quote, because it appeared on the front page of The Plain Dealer and she is the newspaper's foreign-affairs editor.
As the Jewish scholars Ian Lustick and Uri Davis have shown, far from working for an integrated society in which Jews and Arabs functioned as social and political equals, the Jews who founded Israel created a society in which Israeli Jews dominate 'Israeli' Arabs, a separate and unequal society in which discrimination is part of the established social order.16 For example, 93% of Israel's territory had been (until the Su- preme Court decision of March 2000) legally defined as land that can be leased and cultivated only by Jews — Israeli citizens of Arab descent need not apply. Key institutions such as the kibbutz (collectivist Jewish settlements, mainly agricultural) are reserved exclusively for Jews (Israel's Arab citizen's are ex-
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eluded), as Israeli scholar Uri Davis has reminded us in his thorough study, Israel: An Apartheid State}
Dr. Lustick has pointed out that the Israeli military is by and large a segregated institution. Most Muslim Arabs, who consti- tute the overwhelming majority of Israeli Arab citizens, do not serve in the armed forces — they are not conscripted nor are they permitted to volunteer for service. This has important so- cial consequences. In Israel, participation in the armed services is a prerequisite to social advancement and mobility. Cut off from the military, they are cut off from access to one of the main avenues of social advancement.19
Christians and Muslims cannot marry Jews in Israel, and if they are married elsewhere the marriage is not recognized by the rabbinical court in Israel.20
Consider the following facts about Israel, which by contem- porary definitions of 'racism', make Israel a racist state. The Law of the Right of Return grants any Jew, but no-one else, automatic Israeli citizenship. The Nationality Law discrimi- nates against non-Jews so stringently that many Palestinian residents of Israel (stuck there when Israel captured their land in 1948) were denied citizenship even though their families had lived in Palestine for many generations.21 As the late Israeli scholar Simha Flapan pointed out, the founders of Israel wanted to create an ethnically homogenous Jewish state that excluded as many native Arabs as possible. In his own words:22
"[. . .] they [the Zionist leadership] accepted Ben-Gurion 's view that the state of Israel should be demographically ho- mogenous and geographically as extensive as possible. " Flapan added that overwhelming circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that the Zionist military leadership, during the founding years of Israel, planned "to reduce the number of Ar- abs in the Jewish state to a minimum, and to make use of most of their lands, properties, and habitats to absorb the masses of Jewish immigrants."23 Ethnic cleansing, Zionist style.
Another Israeli scholar, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, who teaches at Haifa University, made perfectly clear the plight of Palestinian Arabs who are under the yoke of Jewish-Zionism. The moment a Jew from anywhere in the world gets off the plane in Israel, he already has "more rights than a non-Jew who had the misfortune to be born there. Under the Israeli system of government, a Mr. Cohen from Brooklyn (provided he can qualify as 'Jewish') has more rights than any Palestinian native the moment he steps off the plane at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel- Aviv."24 He added: "Arabs are not just inferior natives, they are foreigners in their homeland."24
The pious Sullivan then engages in some oft-repeated po- litical moralizing:
"It feels right that Bush chose to start his trip with a stop at Auschwitz-Birkenau, not just as a warning of what evil unchecked can do but also to underscore America's commitment to the security of Israel. " This is ironic and hypocritical. Our mass media (inclusive of The Plain Dealer) and U.S. government most vigorously condemn those who advocate or practice segregation, ethnic cleansing and racial oppression here in the US or anywhere else in the world. Yet, Bush employs the Holocaust ideology to 'jus- tify' and 'legitimize' our commitment to an ethnically segre- gated, apartheid state where racial discrimination is enshrined
in the social order, the ethnic cleansing of the native inhabitants is an ongoing practice, and Jews dominate and oppress millions of Palestinian Arabs. Certainly, this is a tribute to how the Jew- ish-Zionist power elite and their gentile allies have corrupted our value system with the promotion of their Holocaust ideology.
Political columnist Sullivan is wrong, as there is nothing 'extremist' about the Holocaust revisionism that I presented here. "Revisionism — a key to peace," so proclaimed a founder of historical revisionism, the late Professor Harry Elmer Bar- nes. If we are ever going to attain peace in the Middle East and justice for the Palestinian people, we are going to have to rid ourselves of this veil of illusions, the traditional view of the Holocaust. And in the end, I believe the revisionist view of the Holocaust will also help the Jewish people, for it will help free them from the paranoid delusion of the Auschwitz 'gas cham- bers' and enable them to live in peace with their Arab neighbors.
Holocaust revisionism, now more than ever! Notes
1 THE PLAIN DEALER is owned by the Jewish Newhouse family. Online: http://www.newhouse.com/newspapers.html
2 Elizabeth Sullivan, "Never again, for anyone, anywhere," The Plain Dealer, 6/1/03; online: www. Cleveland. com/search/index. ssf?/base/opinion/ 1054373752295662.xml?ocsul
3 www.dailyemerald.com/vfeedback/frontend. v?ACTION=display_post& Post_ID=bb2fda62f67ee7aldead6a31dd6adea6
4 Germar Rudolf, The Rudolf Report: Expert Report on Chemical and Tech- nical Aspects of the "Gas Chambers " of Auschwitz (Chicago, IL : Theses & Dissertations Press, 2003); online: http://vho.org/GB/Books/trr/
5 John George, Laird Wilcox, Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe (Prometheus Books, 1992), p. 63.
6 Paul Grubach, '"War Criminals' and Justice: The Double Standard and the Ulterior Agenda". Online: http://vho.Org/GB/c/PG/180900.html
7 Paul Grubach, "The Zionist Campaign for War with Iraq in Revisionist Per- spective". Online: http://www.vho.Org/GB/c/PG/230103.html
8 Elie Wiesel, Legends of Our Time (Avon Books, 1968), pp. 177f.
9 Livia Rokach, Israel 's Sacred Terrorism (Association of Arab-American University Graduates, 1986). Also, see the essay of William Grimstad in The Journal of Historical Review, 9(2) (Summer 1989), pp. 221-232.
10 Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America 's Secret Relations with a Militant Is- rael (William Morrow, 1984), pp. 107-114.
11 Robert Jan van Pelt, The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial (Indiana University Press, 2002), p. 106.
12 Ibid., p. 116.
lj For the development of the victim numbers at the Auschwitz camp, see R. Faurisson, "How many deaths at Auschwitz?," The Revisionist 1(1) (2003), pp. 18-23.
14 Y. Bauer, "Fighting the Distortions," Jerusalem Post (Israel), Sept. 22, 1989.
15 Niko Price, "AP Tallies 3,240 Civilian Deaths in Iraq," Associated Press Release, June 10, 2003.
16 Uri Davis, Israel: An Apartheid State (Zed Books Ltd., 1987); Ian Lustick, Arabs in the Jewish State: Israel's Control of a National Minority (Univer- sity of Texas Press, 1980).
17 The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), May 27, 2003, p. Al .
18 U. Davis, op. cit., (note ) passim.
19 I. Lustick, , op. cit. , (note ) pp. 93-94.
20 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 1993, p. 75; Roselle Teki- ner, Samir Abed-Raboo, Norton Mezvinsky (eds.), Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections (Amana Books, 1988), pp. 86-87, note 21.
21 See Donald Neff, '"If It Walks Like a Duck...': The Racism of Zionism," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November 2001, p. 26; online: http://www.wrmea.com/archives/november01/01 1 1026.html
22 Simha Flapan, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities (Pantheon Books, 1987), p. 88.
23 Ibid., p. 89.
24 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Original Sins: Reflections on the History of Zion- ism and Israel (Olive Branch Press, 1993), p. 91.
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Against the Revisionists, Argumentation ad hominem
By Dr. Robert Faurisson
At times, in a debate of ideas, an attack on the person of the adversary can be justified if, explicitly or implicitly, this type of attack is preceded or accompanied by an argumentation on the substance. On the other hand, a pure and simple ad hominem argument, without further ado, only betrays an inability to reply to the opponent's argument. Such is the case of those who, un- able to refute the demonstrations of historical revisionism, ver- bally set about the person of the revisionists themselves. If need be, this form of cowardly combat may draw its ammunition from rumours, stories, and malicious gossip whose source is rarely given. It ranges from distortion of reality to pure fabrica- tion. No revisionist, it seems to me, has been the object of as many inane rumours as the German-Canadian Ernst Ziindel. In a burst of candour, the Jewish-American lawyer Robert A. Kahn has recently made something of an admission, albeit a cagey one. On the subject of what he calls the "legal strategy" adopted by E. Ziindel's adversaries in their cases against him in Toronto (1984-1985, then 1988), he wonders what line of de- fence the Jews should take in the face of the revisionist on- slaught: must they seek to refute the statements of those revi- sionists, or rather is it more fitting to unmask them, showing them to be nothing but racists and anti-Semites? He proceeds to write:1
"The failure to address the specific factual claims of the Holocaust deniers leaves the unmasking approach open to charges of being an ad hominem attack"
Two Recent Attacks ad hominem
My lot is not to be compared to that of E. Ziindel and, all in all, I am the better for it. Like anyone involved in such a lively debate, I have too often seen the opponent ascribe thoughts, words or actions to me, which bear little or no relation to real- ity. Still, I have until now been spared low-level rumour and gossip, at least in print. But, just recently, two books, one in English, the other in French, have filled that vacuum, and the absence of base attacks ad hominem is no more. If I have de- cided to give an account, it is not to complain but to instruct — and entertain — the reader by enlightening him on the methods to which the anti-revisionists are now reduced.
A BBC Journalist: Nicholas Fraser
In December 1997, Nicholas Fraser, presenting himself as a journalist from BBC Television, asked to meet me. I made his acquaintance at the 17th chamber of the Paris criminal court where Roger Garaudy was being tried for writings of which, by all possible means, he sought to deny the revisionist nature; I made no secret to the British journalist of my attitude with re- gard to such conduct. Our second meeting took place on 13 February 1998 in Vichy, where I live. N. Fraser was preparing a film in which he was keen to see me appear. He assumed the appearance of an impartial investigator. He said that in his "documentary" he did not want to put forward revisionist ar-
guments, for that would entail the risk of legal proceedings, and that he wanted simply to show that a revisionist could bear hu- man likeness. Unhappily for N. Fraser, if he was play-acting, he was going about it rather ham-fisted. It became obvious to me that his film was to deal with the European extreme right and that I was to have a mere walk-on part; revisionism, which is a matter of method and not of ideology, would thus be fused with a well-determined set of political ideas. After his short stay in Vichy, I let him know that I declined to receive him again at my house with his BBC team. I wrote:
"In your film I would be seen, by and large, as having political opinions that are not mine and without the revi- sionist convictions that are indeed mine [but which I could not put forth without risking legal proceedings]. This, in my view, seems a bit too much like the story of the knife- without-a-handle-whose-blade-was-removed-beforehand. " In effect, when the "documentary" was finished and shown, it revealed itself to be one of those firebrands that draw carica- tures of the men and ideas of a certain right wing that it is deemed good to hate. It was on 25 March 1999 that the Arte channel broadcast "Voyage au bout de la droite" (Journey to the end of the right), presented as a production of Christian Poveda and N. Fraser. Of deplorable quality and near non- existent content, this "political documentary", as it termed it- self, showed a feigned, gesticulating, tormented N. Fraser, a man of hollow words. The most amusing aspect of it was that, almost without fail, the journalist let himself be put in his place by his interviewees: a young Danish National-Socialist, then Jean-Marie Le Pen and, finally, David Irving. Without naming names, N. Fraser declared that he had met other "Holocaust deniers" and added, with regard to them: "They are crazy! They are crazy! "
After the Film, the Book
After the film, he published a book: The Voice of Modern Hatred / Encounters with Europe 's New Right.2 Fifteen pages of it are devoted to me (117-131), pages that leave me puzzled as to the gentleman's mental state and nervous wellbeing. In Paris as in Vichy, I had been struck by his unsteadiness. Tall of stature, bald, aged about fifty in 1998, married — as he divulged to me — to a Jewess and himself perhaps Jewish — as he let me understand — this son of an Englishman and a Frenchwoman had given me the impression of being, as the saying has it, not at peace with himself. Did my company make him uneasy? Was he on drugs? At one point, I went so far as to ask whether he was not feeling poorly. It will be seen further on that the question was warranted.
Portrait of a Revisionist
In two passages of his book N. Fraser describes me as wear- ing a beret (p. 117, 127); he also states that I spent the war years in the deepest corner of the sleepy French provinces (119-
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120). Strange! I have never in my life worn a beret and our BBC man can have seen me only in a blue Burton cap; as for my war years, I spent them at Angouleme, Marseille, and Paris, in that order, and stayed in the country only during the summer holidays.
He assigns me an elder brother (p. 120) whereas, at his re- quest, I had specified that I was the eldest of seven children.
In Vichy, N. Fraser thinks he saw me living in a red-brick house (p. 129) but the said house is, in fact, rough-cast and white with green shutters.
It seems that, in my study, there are to be seen "photographs of Jews either dead, or about to be killed, or starving" (p. 130); in reality, no such photograph can be found there, except in the pages of the holocaustic productions that fill my bookshelves.
'It seems as well that my wife, who has a talent for painting, depicts "small provincial scenes of eerily empty streets " (p. 129), whereas in fact her canvasses are rather lively and bright.
Vichy is described as a deserted town whose population seems to have been annihilated by a neutron bomb in the 1950s (p. 121), but towards 1pm, that is at lunchtime and in particular on a February day, I suppose that many small French towns can give the same impression.
I learn in this book that Eric Delcroix, who is my lawyer, is also my son-in-law (p. 1 1 8), whereas we have not the least fam- ily tie, either direct or indirect; in two places in the text, the same barrister, who willingly received the journalist at his Paris office, finds himself being identified by the name Delcourt (p. 324, n. 8, twice).
Pierre Guillaume is described as a printer and a Trotskyist (p. 117-118), whereas he is a publisher and a libertarian of sorts. Paul Rassinier would seem to have been deported to Ravensbriick (p. 122); but Ravensbriick was essentially a women's camp and Rassinier was deported to Buchenwald and Dora. While visiting Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Dachau, it seems that I took samples (for laboratory analysis, of stones, bricks, and plaster) (p. 121-122); here I am being mistaken for the American Fred Leuchter.
It appears that, speaking close to our journalist's ear, I made "a hissing noise like a small snake" (p. 118); it would perhaps have been useful to point out to the reader that during the hear- ings of the Roger Garaudy trial, I merely happened to slip a few whispered words in the ear of my British neighbour, to whom I was striving to explain the anarchic procedure of a trial in the French manner.
I apparently complained of my lot in life, whining in the process (p. 129); actually I rather remember describing my tribulations in the tone of a certain Voltairian jollity.
I seem to have fatuously told him that the following inscrip- tion would be found on my gravestone: "Faurisson told the truth about something important — and he died of it" (p. 127); in fact, I am sure of having confided to him that my surname would never be inscribed on my gravestone; then, cum grano salis, I added that the anonymous epitaph could read: "He said a little exact thing — and he died of it".
Finally, if I dropped the idea of appearing in the "documen- tary", it was, according to the author, because I feared the pos- sibility of being recognised in public and, as a result, physically beaten (p. 131). That is going too far. Here N. Fraser presents
me as a timorous being, which I am not, and, according to him, I would be fearful of a danger that was doubtless imaginary since, in the fifteen pages that he gives over to me, not once does he mention the ten assaults to which I have been sub- jected. These attacks, and the gravity of some of them, are known to him. Yet he makes no mention in this regard, most likely the better to suggest that I am nothing more than a cow- ard.
As for the rest of the chapter, nearly all is tarnished with more or less serious errors. But for two or three exceptions, the remarks attributed to me, along with the indications of dates, places or figures are, with an amazing regularity, either mis- taken or simply invented. Looking to prove that I do not know how to interpret a document and that I am unable to see that the German expression Sonderaktion, meaning "special action", can designate only, as he will have it, a mass murder inside a "gas chamber", our improvising historian omits giving any translation of the German word attached to "special action", a word meaning "out-of-doors". This "special outdoor action" amounted, in the circumstances, to a camp physician's receiv- ing a newly arrived convoy of deportees in the open-air.
N. Fraser Throws up his Meal
N. Fraser judges me to be "entirely perverse" or "worse than perverse" (p. 123f). It seems that the calm with which I put forth my views or commented on documents made him sick. At one moment, near the war memorial square during the tour that I was giving him of 1940-1944 Vichy, I brought up the wish held by the majority of the French, in the late 1930s, to avoid a new Franco-German butchery. In answer to that desire, I told him, Jewish circles gave the clarion call for the anti- German crusade; I dared to voice the proposition that, often throughout their own history, the Jews, under the wrapping of maudlin speeches but beset by the restlessness of the prophet, had played the role of firebrand, inciting host populations to crusades, wars, revolutions. It was then that I noticed some- thing like a physical malaise in my guest:
"[Faurisson] asked me solicitously if I was feeling all right. 'You don 't look at ease ', he said. " (p. 129) I can, I believe, honestly say that at table, an hour earlier, our Englishman had been properly treated. He had, particularly, enjoyed a cheese pie which, in his book, becomes a vegetable pie, and, at dessert, had partaken of a rare Sauternes wine. When, after that collation and the walk round Vichy, he got back to my house and been administered, at his request, a sup- plementary lecture on revisionism and when, after that session, a taxi took him to the station, I thought the matter finished. But not at all. On page 130 of his book, my visitor informs us that in the course of the day, more and more disgusted by my re- marks, he had felt an irrepressible nausea rising. Having arrived at the station, he lets us know that he headed straight for the lavatory where, as he is keen to illustrate:
"I got to my hands and knees, vomiting into the anti- quated and picturesque stand-up toilet. "
A Friend of P. Vidal-Naquet's: Adrien Le Bihan
For his part, the Frenchman Adrien Le Bihan devotes a short section to me in the little book that he has just published
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on the handwritten inscriptions found in the "Auschwitz visi- tor's book". Often in a weary and disabused tone, he picks out and comments on the thoughts of Charles de Gaulle, Helmut Schmidt, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Francois Mitterrand, the Dalai-Lama, John-Paul II, and a good number of other famous or obscure visitors. Since I did not leave my signature in that "livre d'or", it may well be asked on what account I should ap- pear in his book. Furthermore, in a ludicrous manner, the pas- sage devoted to me appears between two sections devoted re- spectively to Kurt Waldheim and Valery Giscard d'Estaing. (The proximity of the latter, a pure show-off, rather annoys me). The pamphlet bears the title Auschwitz Graffiti and is prefaced with gushing praise by Pierre Vidal-Naquet.3 A. Le Bihan, whose style is of a stale classicism, is said to have writ- ten a book on "De Gaulle, writer". What he relates about me seems to result from an inquiry that he has apparently made into my second visit to Krakow and Auschwitz, in 1976.
My Visit to Krakow and Auschwitz in 1976
In effect I had been to Majdanek and Auschwitz in 1975 and returned to Auschwitz the following year. I had managed, that year, to be sent on appointment to the University of Kra- kow to give some lectures and conferences on French literature. The young Polish woman to whom the Communist regime had given the task of accompanying me spoke a delightful French, full of finesse; she had married a Jew. In her company, after considerable difficulty, I came across Stanislas Mucha, the first photographer to have discovered the Auschwitz camp after the Germans' departure and before the arrival of the Soviets ("All drunks"). He shared with me some interesting reflections on the possibilities of photographic fakery and on the transformation of the place by the Communists. Out of caution, I avoided re- vealing anything about the purpose of my investigation, so that neither S. Mucha, nor my charming interpreter, nor any of the other persons (French or Polish) with whom I came into contact throughout the whole time of my assignment could suspect my evil revisionist motives.
A young woman colleague at the University of Krakow, upon learning that I wished to make a visit to Auschwitz, of- fered to take me there and her father agreed to give me accom- modation. The worthy man, a taxi driver, had just lost his wife. He was shattered. Sometimes I could hear him sobbing in his room. He went to great lengths to look after me, in the kindest ways. I was stricken with a bad cold for a few days: I received care from a female doctor. A gracious young Polish lady, whose acquaintance I had made at the Auschwitz museum and who worked there, offered to fetch me all of the documents that I was trying to find. My host had worked in the camp itself dur- ing the war but he preferred to tell me nothing about that. I no- ticed simply that he had in all likelihood seen nothing of the horrors attached today to the name of Auschwitz. Like all his compatriots, he lived in fear of the police and I decided to avoid asking any embarrassing questions. Once back in France, I tried to show him my gratitude for his hospitality by sending him a gift parcel, but do not know if he ever received it. My subse- quent letters went unanswered. I had to wait a long time for some precious photographs from the museum for which I had paid in advance; I wrote to my guide asking her to inquire there
on my behalf, which, I reckon, she did, for in the end I received my order.
If I feel a need to go into such detail, it is so that the reader may imagine how much I was to be taken aback by the discov- ery of pages 48-50 of A. Le Bihan's book.
Strange and Disquieting "Testimonies"
According to the anonymous "witnesses" whom A. Le Bi- han has met, I appear to have conducted myself in Poland like some satanic character, callous and ungrateful towards both my host and my guide, and dubiously gallant with the ladies.
"[One] evening, the taxi driver surprised Faurisson in his room in a curious posture. He had put out the electric lamp and lit candles. What sort of black mass was the lit- erature professor holding? What sort of papers was he looking through in the candlelight? It has remained a mys- tery. " (p. 48)
I hope that the reader will be good enough to believe me if I say that I do not hold the key to this mystery either. The popu- lar expression has it that "where there's smoke, there's fire" but I must admit that here I see not the shadow of a fire or a flame. What mind can have spawned such a delirium? And why? Is the intention to have people understand that, in most Catholic Poland, I was devoting myself to a satanic rite by deciphering some demonic scrawls? Or else — and this hypothesis comes to me from someone well acquainted with the country — had I been obliged, by one of the power failures so frequent in all of the 'peoples' republics', to light a candle in order to get on with reading my documents? Twenty-four years on, I confess that I have no recollection of it. Still according to "witnesses", it seems, for good measure, that I paid court to the ladies, doubt- less as Faust did to his Margaret, and that I wrote. . . love poetry to them. In doing so, it is probable that, like Goethe's hero, I harbored shadowy ulterior motives in their regard. But let us see for ourselves:
"Witnesses have stated that Faurisson, in Krakow, liked to pay court to the ladies, but up to a certain point. He wrote them love poems. The woman who accompanied him in Krakow recalls that 'his conversation was brilliant and intelligent, ' although interspersed with anti-Semitic opin- ions such as 'The Jews have a thick intelligence. '" (ibid.) Thus, with a resemblance to Mephistopheles, I knew how to talk to the ladies, even to beguile them with spells of the Muse but not without decanting into their mind some ghastly remarks about the Jews. I must acknowledge here the likelihood that I did utter those comments on the sons and daughters of Zion; perhaps I even added that I believed that Louis-Ferdinand Celine who, of course, saw in them much sensitivity, but a "tinny sensitivity" (as opposed to one of bronze, which is profound), was right.
It seems that on my return from Auschwitz I described my host as a "primitive, dull-witted, coarse, and vulgar" man (p. 48) and that I set about "tormenting" my guide with endless re- quests that she contact the Auschwitz museum in order to ob- tain the promissed documents (p. 49).
The Polish Secret Service
A. Bihan does not know whether, at that time, I succeeded in getting the documents in question. He nonetheless ought to
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know that they were indeed sent to me and that, thanks to them, I was the first in the world to publish reproductions of the Ger- man blueprints showing what the places at Auschwitz and Birkenau, re-christened 'gas chambers,' had actually been. His ignorance on this point does not prevent him from cooking up a theory: that of Faurisson's manipulation by the Communist Pol- ish secret service to anti- Jewish ends:
"Did Faurisson obtain the documents that he desired? If so, that could mean that the Polish secret service had in mind a certain object, for it regularly engaged in the theft and confiscation of documents of all sorts. It is not implau- sible that, while their political rulers were condemning the German revanchists, these agents secretly promoted the theory according to which the gas chambers had not existed [...]. "(p. 49)
Diabolical to his claw-tips, Faurisson also managed to "evade the radar" of the cultural service at the French embassy in Warsaw. Disquieting, reckon A. Le Bihan and P. Vidal- Naquet, disquieting and unjust:
"When one recalls that ten years or so after this journey [of Faurisson's in Communist Poland], the cultural service at the French embassy in Belgrade [capital of Communist Yugoslavia] wanted to make Vidal-Naquet, in his confer- ences held in Yugoslavia, keep to the subject of the ancient Mediterranean world, thus to exclude the Algerian war from the programme, it is disquieting that a Faurisson should have succeeded, in Poland, in evading the radar of a cultural service of the same type. " (p. 50)
The Current Disarray of the Anti-Revisionists
As a French moralist assures us, one prefers to hear ill spo- ken of oneself rather than nothing at all. In my own case, this 'ill,' these slanders and calumnies do not bother me for they il- lustrate our opponents' sheer inability to offer any counter- arguments. Argumentation ad hominem, especially on the level practised today by a N. Fraser, an A. Le Bihan, or a P. Vidal- Naquet, bolsters our view that the year 2000 will go down in
the history of the Big Lie as a bad vintage indeed. For P. Vidal- Naquet and his ilk, I see even darker times not far ahead. The revisionist Intifada is going to hurt.
Nota Bene
A revisionist friend, G. D., observes that to the names of Nicholas Fraser, Andre Le Bihan, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, I should do well to add that of Valerie Igounet who published an
Histoire du negationnisme en France? In it the young lady du- tifully amassed disturbing reports about me, such as this one by the former Parisian bookseller Bela Elek:
"I saw Faurisson once [circa 1979]. He came to my bookshop with Pierre Guillaume. I was very annoyed be- cause I had a Jewish encyclopedia in Hebrew. It was on the floor. Faurisson took it in his hands but wrong side up. Which is not so bad. He started reading it wrong side up and cried out 'Oh, how interesting! ' I wondered who this guy was. Afterwards we talked of other things. He acted in this silly way. He wanted to present himself as a big special- ist on the Jewish question. It was ridiculous and, besides, not helpful. I told Guillaume that his pal was a bit weird. Guillaume was totally in awe. He had found an interesting explanation. " (p. 343)
For my part, I do not remember the episode. I have checked with P. Guillaume, who sees in it merely one of those halluci- nations "a la Bela Elek", a distressed, if not disturbed, charac- ter.
© 30 October 2000
Notes
1 "Rebuttal versus Unmasking : Legal Strategy in Regina versus Ziindel", Patterns of Prejudice (London: Institute for Jewish Policy Research), July 2000, p. 3.
2 Picador (MacMillan), 2000, 327 p.
3 Librio, Flammarion, June 2000, 128 p.
4 Seuil, March 2000, 701 p.
Book Reviews
Battlefield Patriotism
By Scott L. Smith
Richard Holmes, Battlefields of the Second World War, BBC, London 2003 (c. 2001). Paperback. 222 pages. Photo- graphs, inc. color, maps. Index. ISBN: 0563488123
Professor Richard Holmes, Director of Cranfield Univer- sity's Security Studies Institute, presenter of the BBC TV series Battlefields of the Second World War, and author of the accom- panying book of the same name, outlines four major battles significant to British participation in World War II: El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Market Garden, and the Bomber War.
Specialists will find little of interest in Battlefields, but it is not daunting for the novice and includes commentary for battle- field tourists. Holmes is fair to all participants in his study. The book contains a provocative introduction that justifies the bank- rupting of a mighty nation to fight a legendary war. Holmes supplies no annotation, only an informal bibliography to sug- gest further reading.
The historiography of the Second World War originally lauded the Churchillian significance of those who "shall fight on the beaches" until the mighty new world "steps forth to the
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rescue and the liberation of the old." Postwar historians tended to overempha- size the importance of the North African theater and virtually neglected the Rus- sian front entirely — it being the prover- bial "unknown war," where eighty per- cent of the losses of the Wehrmacht were actually incurred.
In recent years, however, with the mining of Russian archives and mush- rooming interest in the so-called geno- cidal war of ideologies, the eastern front has emerged in importance. By the same token, Hollywood has driven an increas- ingly smarmy America-centric view of the war as being won by jazzy companies of Yanks at places like Omaha and Bas- togne.
Holmes calmly sets to reaffirm the Tommies' contribution to the bitter cru- sade against the penultimate Axis of Evil, perhaps seeking to restore patriotic pride for a UK generation that knows the war only from movies and TV.
Holmes makes his best case for British relevance with Alamein. This was the theater that Hitler found an irreducible thorn in his side. It allowed the Allies to deconstruct the myth of German invincibility, despite the Wehrmacht's superior mili- tary fighting power, usually calculated as a twenty percent ad- vantage over their Allied counterparts. Furthermore, because the independent Royal Air Force was built for strategic bomb- ing from its inception in 1918, it had to overcome a gauntlet of inter-service rivalry while forced to develop effective close-air support tactics, a tribute to crucial innovation in the desert war,
Richard Holmes
BATTLEFIELDS
but years behind proven Luftwaffe doc- trines.
Cassino illustrates the importance of terrain. Holmes examines the battlefield himself and wonders at the perseverance of the ordinary footsoldier.
Market Garden, the largest airborne operation ever undertaken, was hatched by Field Marshal Montgomery in an unlikely scenario that might have ended the war months ahead of schedule. De- spite spectacular failure, Market Garden was another worthy effort for British gen- erations to be proud of in the grand An- glo-American scheme to 'liberate' the world.
Perhaps Holmes's most controversial viewpoint is his defense of the "shorten- ing of the war" by the RAF's aerial bombing campaign over Germany. The bomber piece is worth the price alone and serves as a good introduction to the Bomber War from the viewpoint of the foremost firebrands of "taking the terror to the enemy." Bomber Command's aircrew attacked the most heav- ily defended airspace seen until Hanoi in 1972 and lost 55,500 lives, the surviving heroes bringing home a bitter legacy of moral uncertainty. Holmes sniffs at the conscience of David Ir- ving, "part of his lonely campaign to show that the Nazis were not much worse than anyone else."
All of this insouciant Churchillian patriotism begs the ques- tion, however, whether the Allies really were "much better" than anyone else. For Professor Richard Holmes in the UK, of that moral certainty there is no question.
"Genocide" by Shovel and Sewing Machine
By Scott L. Smith
Michael Thad Allen, The Business of Genocide: The SS, Slave Labor and the Concentration Camps, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 2002, 377 pp., hard- cover, $39.95.
Michael Thad Allen is assistant professor of modern Ger- man history and the history of technology at the Georgia Insti- tute of Technology in Atlanta. Despite its burlesque title, The Business of Genocide is an important study of the SS from a technocratic viewpoint and develops the existential conflicts within the WVHA (Wirtschaft- und Verwaltungshauptamt), thus providing a clearer picture of a neglected aspect of Ger- man National Socialist institutions and the evolution of inexo- rable wartime practices. Specialists should find plenty of inter- est.
The WVHA was the economic and administrative office of the SS, which Albert Speer notably accused of conspiring to "infiltrate" the supposedly apolitical German technical profes-
sions with National Socialist fundamentalists and hacks, only to wring profit and genocide from the exploitation of slaves. Allen undoes Speer' s shopworn thesis but attempts to paint an even darker picture of a German economy gearing for total war that instead came willingly to an eager SS to utilize its mushroom- ing pool of prison labor. Thus the SS is no longer the 'alibi' for a German nation now intent to distance itself from wartime ex- tremes considered crucial at the time when the alternatives were victory or unconditional surrender. Allen's Holocaust thesis is essentially functional, that the SS attempted to evolve a means for deriving production from the purgation of the State's ene- mies, thus melding the seemingly divergent needs for forced labor and genocide, for an "extermination through work."
Arbeit macht frei (work liberates) was the slogan of Theo- dor Eicke, founder of the first National Socialist Konzentra- tionslager at Dachau, subsequently brought by Concentration Camp Inspectorate disciples such as Rudolf H6B to Auschwitz; it represented both a sincere belief in manual labor for the
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THE
BUSINESS
GENOCIDE
therapeutic incarceration of the German criminal or political prisoner and a cynical belief that many of the State's enemies were in need of such purification. Before the war, asocial pris- oners were punished with desultory camp-keeping tasks or heavy labor in order to break the will of the hardened criminal and political prisoner. What H6B called the "Dachau school" of camp commanders never saw or quite understood the value of forced labor when it eventually became economically valuable and utterly essential to the war effort. When Eicke left "pencil pushing" for his real passion, raising the SS-Totenkopf division to fight the war with a cadre of "political soldiers," Richard Gliicks succeeded him as head of the Concentration Camp In- spectorate, and remained perhaps the most incompetent and in- dolent of all the SS high-commanders.
Oswald Pohl, head of the WVHA, provides an example of the second of three groups of SS managers studied. Allen shows that the SS were mostly not opportunists, as has been voluminously said of them; however, SS managers in this sec- ond group were nevertheless generally in- efficient hacks and often corrupt. Unlike Gliicks, Pohl was a beehive of energy. A former navy paymaster, Pohl was overall competent but sometimes lacking in judgment when appointing subordinates, and not altogether competent technically for the tasks the WVHA increasingly found in its scope.
The National Socialist tended to be a lower middle-class movement which was enamored with technology and modernity for its own sake. If their Fiihrerprinzip and anti-capitalist inclinations are judged as anti-modern by tendentious historians today, this is misleading, for theirs was only a different vision of modernity. The Weimar regime had only showed what could not be done with latent German professional talent; the National Socialist state showed the sky was the limit for the German engineer and architect of the fu- ture. They did not see themselves as un- modern, nor were they generally hypocritical opportunists and 'banally evil' yet perversely brilliant bureaucratic cogs. Most wives of SS technocrats, for example, were professionally edu- cated themselves and shared NS political values. The SS elite were essentially "productivist" idealists who saw the role of the economy not as bringing profits to a plutocracy or adhering to the soulless dogmas of 'the salesman's point of view,' but in- stead as manufacturing German culture itself. They had great confidence in the virtue of German blood and German soil, however defined. Too much has been made of the 'polycratic' nature of the National Socialist government. Professor Allen shows that this hackneyed paradigm of bureaucratic chaos only underscores the variegated opportunities for National Socialist competitors to cooperate in realizing their shared ideals and common national goals.
Diverse SS experiments and enterprises would largely have failed without state support. The WVHA basically operated as a
The SS, Slave Labor, and the Concentration Camps
MICHAEL T H A D ALLEN
state corporation which generated bricks and stone for SS and Party construction projects — with dreams of Utopian SS hous- ing settlements in colonized lands. Most SS managers did not understand the nature of their own unskilled prisoner labor force and didn't care to. A project to install high-technology and process-sensitive kilns at Sachsenhausen, for example, was a spectacular failure. However, low-tech tools such as sewing machines at the women's camp of Ravensbrtick, and rock hammers or even ordinary picks and shovels for quarrying (and later tunneling), were quite successful with the available pris- oner labor force — these tools being developed for a labor- intensive and essentially unskilled piecework industry to begin with, rather than a highly motivated modern labor force with a low rate of turnover.
Before the war, the concentration camp population was low, rarely exceeding twenty-five thousand. But due to the increasing scale of German rearmament and the growing peacetime labor shortage, the SS found that its pool of prisoners had some value in a labor market that ordinarily would have been categorically rejected as 'slaves' competing with free German labor. The SS supplied its quotas of bricks and stone and garments more or less as needed. That it didn't really turn a traditional 'profit' with its prisons bothered few.
The war changed everything, and the labor-camp population exploded. In went a supply of prison labor and out came building materials for a war economy that couldn't get enough. When the SS wanted the gigantic bag of Soviet prisoners of war from the Barbarossa invasion, it found by the end of 1941 that those prom- ised had largely already perished of expo- sure and neglect at the hands of the Wehrmacht and the General Staff, which had not planned for reversals and a long winter war. Yet the SS itself rarely proved creative except at radicalizing general sentiments, and never really came to grips with its own prisoner resources as it tried during the subsequent years of "total war" to rationalize its im- pressed slave labor to victory. As long as a constant supply of prisoner labor from security sweeps or police intakes could be found, out came the "product," grimly or not.
The third group, and most interesting, are the extremely competent and highly motivated German engineers, led by Dr.- Ingenieur Hans Kammler, a military civil engineer who had been recruited from the Luftwaffe by Himmler to lead Amt-C, the WVHA's construction department. Dr. Porsche came en- thusiastically to the SS looking for help building military Volkswagens. Even General Dornberger, inventor of the V-2 ballistic missile, which was later fired in combat by General Kammler's men, came humbly to the SS looking for miracles. Far from the Faustian bargain described by Speer and lamented by Dornberger, the SS generally delivered what was asked and then some. Eventually Kammler came to head all German se- cret weapons projects, including turbojets.
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Dr. Kammler's office built the crematoria at Auschwitz, and, using prisoner labor, relentlessly dug the tunnels at Nord- hausen in which the German secret weapons were mass- produced. He used skilled crews and high-tech equipment when he could get them, otherwise using unskilled labor gangs to greatest effect — his enemy being time itself. Excluding perhaps the Soviet atomic program, the V-2 rocket was possibly the most costly modern weapons system in terms of lives lost in its manufacture, about ten thousand, compared to the enemy lives it took in operational use, about 2,500. But in all fairness, the involvement of the SS in mass production of the weapon by digging tunnels for its assembly came only as a result of Allied bombardments, and the V-2 itself was built as a deterring pay- back to Allied bombing in the first place. Few prisoners died on the actual assembly lines, which were directed by Albin Sa- watzki, Arthur Rudolph, and other capable industrial managers; the work was too precise for carelessness and even skilled 'slaves' had essential value and were treated accordingly by the SS.
Classification as "fit for work," using modern statistical ac- countability, was introduced by Gerhard Maurer. Though far
from meeting industrial standards, it kept intransigent com- mandants focused on the vital war effort, and could mean the difference between life and death for a prisoner. Competent or not, the SS was not inclined to properly feed and house "useless eaters." Kammler would not have needed gas chambers; he simply could not use those who could not work, and scarce ra- tions were allocated accordingly. The Boelcke-Kaserne was es- sentially a death camp where the Dora-Mittelbau project's unfit for work were left to expire in short order. This begs the ques- tion as to why other SS commanders allegedly needed poison gas to kill unfit prisoners.
The history of the WVHA is one that shows the scope of ruthless wartime measures, but SS jurisdiction was only a small part of the German war economy, a quarter of which comprised labor-conscripts, mostly foreigners. The SS did not force slav- ery upon German industry, nor corrupt an apolitical technoc- racy with some sort of fundamentalist creed of killing. Allen predictably concludes, however, that the WVHA developed "extermination through work" in the fullest sense of the term, giving precedence to neither murder nor production, but insou- ciantly accommodating each in equal measure.
Gestapo USA
By Germar Rudolf
William E. Winterstein, Gestapo USA. When Justice Was Blindfolded, Reed Publishers, San Francisco 2002, 261 pp. he, $25.95
As part of "Operation Paperclip" shortly after World War II, the USA transported a number of captured German rocket sci- entists to Ft. Bliss, Texas, where they were kept under quasi ar- rest for almost two years. William Winterstein was the Army officer who served as steward of this valuable war booty. A close friendship developed between Winterstein and the leading personality of these German rocket scientists, Wernher von Braun, so that when the Apollo Moon Landing Pro- gram got under way, von Braun brought Winterstein to Huntsville, Alabama, as part of his team.
Winterstein begins his book with the triumphant story of the German scientists and technicians who gave the USA world supremacy in space exploration. Most of the book, however, is devoted to the scan- dal involving Dr. Arthur Rudolph, the manager of the Apollo Program. Early in the Eighties, Rudolf came under the crosshairs of the witch hunting Office of Special Investigation (OSI), which had been established in 1976 by President Jimmy Carter under pressure from the Jewish lobby. This was a special depart-
ment of the Department of Justice whose function was the dis- covery and deportation of former National Socialist criminals who had emigrated to the US. The OSI alleged that Dr. Ru- dolph had committed war crimes in the course of his activities as director of production of V2 Rockets at the Mittelbau facil- ity. In addition, the OSI charged that he was a Nazi and a racist since he had joined the Party in 1931. The two Jewish inquisi- tors assigned to the case, Neil Sher and Eli Rosenbaum, de- cided against establishing direct contact with Dr. Rudolph, preferring to deal with his lawyer instead. They made concrete threats of attacking Dr. Rudolph in an ex- pensive and long drawn out legal proce- dure designed to revoke his US citizen- ship. However, they hesitated to present the evidence which they allegedly had against him. In the Fall of 1983 they fi- nally offered Dr. Rudolph a deal under which he would voluntarily renounce his US citizenship, leave the USA perma- nently, and plead guilty to having ex- ploited slave labor. In return, they assured him that he would receive his full retire- ment benefits plus Social Security while his naturalized wife and children would be allowed to keep their US citizenship. Because Dr. Rudolph had recently under- gone a bypass operation, was in a stress- ful situation and lacked financial means to protect himself from prosecution by a
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branch of the federal government, he finally agreed to these conditions, albeit under protest. In 1984, Dr. Rudolf left the United States and returned to Germany as a visitor. In accor- dance with his agreement, he renounced his citizenship at the American Embassy. Since Dr. Rudolph was no longer a citizen of Germany, this caused a diplomatic protest on the part of the German government. That government, which emulated Wash- ington's frenzied persecution of former National Socialists, had no desire to be seen as a dumping ground for unwanted US citi- zens. Washington paid no attention to the protests of its vassal state, however.
In view of the charges leveled by the OSI, Germany also pressed charges against Dr. Rudolph. These were soon dropped for lack of evidence. Furthermore, Germany's request for assis- tance in obtaining evidence disclosed that the OSI had been bluffing. There was no evidence of culpability on Rudolph's part. The OSI had gone so far as to advertise in newspapers for incriminating evidence, without success.
At a reunion of his old Apollo team, William Winterstein learned of the disgraceful affair and became involved in the
Rudolph case. Ever since then he has been active on Rudolph's behalf, seeking official rehabilitation and reinstatement of citi- zenship. Over a period of 15 years, he has collected a great deal of evidence and entered appeals of all court decisions. Despite clear and overwhelming evidence in support of Rudolph, his Sisyphus labors have remained without success at any level. This is a very sobering realization for anyone who still has faith in our system of government. Even the US Congress allowed it- self to be misused by the OSI, as it sealed the Rudolph file. It will be many years before the public knows of the dirty tricks which the ISO used to assassinate the character of one of the greatest German American scientists and then deprive him of his citizenship.
Winterstein finishes off his fascinating story by exposing close collaboration between the OSI and the KGB in framing Rudolph. Perhaps this provides our best insight into the motiva- tion and methods of the OSI.
First published in Vierteljahreshefte fiir freie Geschichtsforschung, 6(4) (2002), pp. 482f. Translated by James Damon.
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We would appreciate if our readers would honor this special offer, also as a support for Mr. Winterstein senior and junior for their ongoing efforts to help the Wernher von Braun rocket team and their families in their struggle to fight repeated attempts of well-known pressure groups to de- pict them as war criminals.
Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust
By Francis Dixon
Annette Insdorf, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holo- caust, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, 430 pp., $25.-
Indelible Shadows is a rather idiosyncratic study of films, dramatic and documentary, that cluster around the Holocaust, narrowly defined by author Annette Insdorf as the "genocide of European Jewry." If the author is to be believed, the book, first published in 1983, is an attempt to evaluate Holocaust films above all from an ethical basis that prizes truth and earnestness and dismisses sensationalism and error. In this aim, Indelible Shadows fails rather badly; the interesting question is why.
One reason the book falls short is the author's puzzling eclecticism in her designation of Holocaust films. Perhaps the 1940 Great Dictator 's inclusion of concentration camps and the slapstick resistance of ghetto denizens justifies the six pages of text and stills devoted to it, but how to justify lengthy treat- ments of Cabaret (1972) or Ingmar Bergmann's The Serpent's Egg (1977), each set in the Weimar republic? Possibly the au- thor subscribes to a particularly fervent belief in "intentional- ism," the academic notion that the Holocaust was being
planned years, if not decades, before it is alleged to have begun; just as likely is both films' service as anti-Nazi and anti- German propaganda.
For all her moral earnestness, Insdorf, a professor of film studies at Columbia, is noticeably erratic in her sense of propri- ety. True, Mel Brooks's The Producers (1968) didn't quite make the cut — but The Boys from Brazil (1978), a fantasy in which Dr. Mengele (forgettably portrayed by Gregory Peck) unleashes several dozen Hitler clones on the world before being foiled by Simon Wiesenthal-figure Ezra Liebermann (played by a slightly miscast Lawrence Olivier), receives respectful con- sideration ("an entertaining thriller that raises some important questions of Nazi continuity," p. 10). Why, then, the omission of The Odessa File (1974) (more of Wiesenthal's Munchause- nesque derring-do), or, for that matter, They Saved Hitler's Brain (1963) ("a disturbing science-fiction evocation of the perversion of biology and medicine in the Third Reich," she might call it)? In any case, Professor Insdorf s opinion that "...for anyone who saw Marathon Man, in which Laurence Olivier portrayed a Nazi dentist on the rampage in New York City, his fine performance here as Liebermann suggests too
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great a versatility" (p. 11) will doubtless convince most readers of The Revisionist that too strenuous an attempt to divine her critical standards and method would be time wasted.
In her evaluation of films that attempt to depict aspects of the Holocaust, Insdorf is generally hard on Hollywood, faulting it for everything from Holo-kitsch to ex- cessive blood and gore to oversensitivity about gentile concerns. While it is amus- ing to learn that objections from the American Gas Association resulted in the deletion of the word "gas" from a tele- vised version of Judgment at Nuremberg on Playhouse 90 in 1959 (p. 3), revision- ist readers will be bemused to find out that it is the "Hollywood conventions of casting and scoring" that undermine the authenticity of The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) (p. 7). Evidently the author is not troubled by the discrepancies between the various texts of the diary and its diver- gences from discernible reality unearthed by Robert Faurisson (condemned in the author's 1983 introduction), or even by the re-jiggering, as remarked by author Ira Levin, of the diary's content to cater to the concerns of gentile theater and filmgoers.
Ranging through scores of films and hundreds of pages to pluck out such anomalies for examination is easy: Why isn't the casting of Robert Mitchum in War and Remembrance (1989) (pp. 23) faulted in light of Mitchum' s revisionist and anti-Semitic comments (he wanted to visit Israel wearing an "I Like Ike [i.e., Eich]" button) at the time? How on earth does the story of an anti-Semitic Polish priest who died at Auschwitz {Life for Life — Maximilian Kolbe [1991]) qualify as a film about the genocide of the Jews? What, exactly, does ex-SS man Dirk Bogarde's slathering his former concentration camp charge and sado-masochistic lover Charlotte Rampling with jam during a hearty coupling in a hotel in 1957 Vienna (in the Night Porter [1974], respectfully treated here [pp. 130-2]) have to do with the Holocaust? Yet, since Indelible Shadows carries
Indelible Shadows
Film and the Holocaust
IK HD tlNlliM
a foreword by the incomparable Elie Wie- sel, to ask over many such questions would be cruel: it would mean watching the Holocaust cult's thin-skinned St. Sebastian, as well as Ms. Insdorf, trans- formed first to pin-cushions, then to hedgehogs, by a hundred and one piercing barbs.
When it comes to authenticity, cou- pled with morality, in depicting the sup- posed genocide, author Insdorf places Alain Resnais's 1954 Night and Fog, Claude Lanzmann's 1985 Shoah, and Steven Spielberg's 1993 Schindler's List in the first rank of Holocaust films. She is evidently untroubled by Night and Fog's claim that nine million people died at Auschwitz, and approves of its accusa- tions, supported by lurid images, that corpses there were manufactured or crafted into soap, fertilizer, lampshades, handbags, and the like (p. 37). The talking heads and chugging choo-choos of Shoah are proof enough for Insdorf of the gassing of up to three mil- lion Jews — but then, she is gullible enough to believe a claim, by one of Lanzmann's interviewees, that while operating a lo- comotive which periodically took trainloads of Jews to Treb- linka he was allowed by the Germans to assuage his massive guilt by freely guzzling vodka. As for Schindler 's List (passing over the film's numerous deviations from historical fact and its refusal to moralize over its protagonist's having been a war criminal, by Nuremberg standards, in half a dozen different ways), the author seems unperturbed that the film's focus on individual sadism and its visual de-emphasis represents a rever- sion to the tabloid representations of the immediate postwar — plus cringing, subservient Jews and their Nazi savior, to boot.
Annette Insdorf makes much of searching for Holocaust films that are morally righteous as well as marketable. Her book more than hints, however, at a greater interest in movies that promote the Holocaust cult with a strong bias and a feeble regard for historical truth, to the largest possible audience.
Raul Hilberg's Incurable Autism
By Mr gen Graf
Raul Hilberg, Sources of Holocaust Research: An Analy- sis, R. Dee, Chicago, 2001, hardcover, 218 pp., $26.-
1. The Destruction of European Jewry
Fifteen years ago, Robert Faurisson stated the opinion that Raul Hilberg was the only representative of the official version of the "Holocaust" for whom he felt a certain measure of re- spect, although only on the basis of the quantity of his work. In Faurisson's estimation he "stood far above Poliakov, Wellers, Klarsfeld and their consorts."1 It is undeniable that this Jewish historian, who was born in Vienna in 1926 and emigrated to
America, has written a massive work on the history of the Jews during the National Socialist period,2 the result of many years of intensive document study.
Based on the massive amount of documentary materials which he utilized, Hilberg could have written a book entitled "The Persecution of European Jews" which would have won him the reputation of a first rate historian. He squandered this opportunity because the title that he chose for his three-volume opus is not "The Persecution of European Jews" but rather The Extermination of European Jewry. Hilberg set out to prove, not only the persecution of the Jews, that is, the methodical depri-
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vation of legal rights and deportations to camps and ghettos, but their actual extermination as well. He alleges this occurred pri- marily through mass killings in "homicidal gas chambers" which were constructed in "extermination camps." However, in all the mountains of German documents from World War II he was unable to find any evidence whatsoever of such an exter- mination, and he found just as little material evidence.
In my book Giant With Feet of Clay; Raul Hilberg and his Standard Work on the "Holocaust" I have demonstrated in de- tail the many ways in which Hilberg vainly attempts to prove that Jews were murdered in chemical slaughterhouses.3 He ig- nores the principle, acknowledged in historiography and juris- prudence, that eyewitness testimony is the least credible kind, much inferior to both material and documentary evidence. He turns the hierarchy of evidence upside down, inevitably giving eyewitness evidence precedence over documentary evidence. As for material evidence, he does not deign to consider it.
While Hilberg easily establishes the persecution of Jews on the basis of an infinite number of wartime documents, he re- sorts exclusively to eyewitness testimony to back up his allega- tions of murders in gas chambers. In other words: without the testimony of a few eye- witnesses, we would have no "Holocaust." There are few differences between the first English edition of his work, published in 1961, and the second edition, published in 1985.
The German version is based on this edi- tion. For example, in his first edition Hilberg refers to two orders by Hitler for the extermi- nation of Jews. The first order, allegedly given in 1941, concerned Soviet Jews. The second order, allegedly given after mass murder had begun in the USSR, was for the extermination of all Jews.4 In the second edi- tion of Hilberg 's major work, all reference to these phantom orders has disappeared with- out a trace. This obviously represents a great concession to the Revisionists, although Hil- berg says not a single word about it. Revisionists have always emphasized the total absence of such orders; thus it seems very strange that Hilberg, who was just 59 at the time, would have been certain that his second edition was "definitive." Did he really believe, in 1985, that his theses were so unassailable that no real changes would be necessary in future editions? Did he really believe that all significant "Holocaust" research had al- ready been completed? Hilberg's newest book suggests that the answer to both questions is "yes."
2. Sources of Holocaust Research; or the Tricks of a Paper Historian.
Let me say at the beginning: Sources of Holocaust Research is a thoroughly wretched book. Its only virtue is that it again demonstrates the indefensibility of the official version of the fate of the Jews during World War II. Comparing it with The Destruction of European Jewry, we find that Hilberg presents not a single new argument worthy of the name. He practically ignores the investigations performed by other authors in the
course of the past fifteen years, and he still refuses to mention the name of a single revisionist historian. Furthermore he gives hardly any credit to the two most knowledgeable Auschwitz experts in the exterminationist camp, Jean-Claude Pressac and Robert Jan van Pelt: He refers to Pressac one time5 and he finds van Pelt unworthy of even having his name mentioned. On page 243 Hilberg writes that there is "no finality" in Holocaust research and results are "constantly in flux" but he obviously is thinking solely of isolated, secondary questions and details to be clarified by future historians. He implies that in all its impor- tant points, the "Holocaust" has been exhaustively researched (by Raul Hilberg.)
This leads us to ask: "Exhaustively researched on a basis of what evidence?" Hilberg admits at the beginning of the first chapter that there is very little material evidence for the alleged mass murder of millions.
"Hardly anything remains of entire structural com- plexes such as ghettos, camps, or mass graves. Most of these no longer exist. [...] The complexes of the three ex- termination camps in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka were leveled to the ground before the advance of the Red Army. The bodies in most of the mass graves of Eastern Europe were systematically exhumed and burned by a special SS unit. Several sites, which were not destroyed by the Nazis, were immedi- ately or subsequently redeveloped by the victorious Allies. [. . .] The mass graves at the Babi Jar gorge near Kyiv, where thirty thousand people were shot, are no longer in existence" (pages 13f.) Here, Hilberg is regurgitating the usual hackneyed excuse for lack of material evi- dence: He claims the Germans destroyed all evidence of their crimes. Everyone who is at all familiar with revisionist research knows how untenable this allegation is. Cremato- rium II of Birkenau, which according to offi- cial historiography was the principal murder site of the Third Reich, is still sufficiently preserved to allow architectural and chemical investigation. The "gas chambers" of Auschwitz I and Majdanek can easily be inspected to ascer- tain whether it would have been possible for them to fulfill the alleged function. Furthermore, the existence of former mass graves can be established by air photos, ground penetrating ra- dar, and other means. Hilberg, however, who is a "paper histo- rian" to use Faurisson's expression, is not the least bit inter- ested in forensic procedure. The "complex of Holocaust events," according to Hilberg, cannot be reconstructed by means of physical remains. He continues:
"It is not different with items of various nature. There are locked boxcars like those used to deport Jews standing on the railroad tracks near Treblinka; another is found in the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. There are some boards with which prefabricated barracks (similar to horse stalls) were constructed for the inmates at Auschwitz. There are bolts of yellow cloth with the printed black 'Jew- ish Star, ' the so-called 'Yellow Star ' on exhibit in the Jew-
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ish Museum in Vienna as well as the stars worn by individ- ual Jews in various public exhibits. Coins and paper money, which circulated in the Lodz ghetto, are still in existence, as are banknotes from the Theresienstadt ghetto. At Auschwitz, Jewish luggage is displayed in showcases along with spec- tacles and long locks of women 's hair.[6] In the Lublin camp there are barracks filled with shoes which were collected by the SS in the complex of Belzec-Sobibor-Treblinka.m There is also a gypsy caravan, a fishing boat that brought Jews from Denmark to security in Sweden, the rusty weapon of a resistance fighter — all objects which are still in existence; but except for these, there is hardly anything left. " (page 14f.)
No logical person can fathom how boxcars, boards from horse stables, bolts of cloth, coins, luggage, shoes, fishing boats and rusty weapons establish genocide committed in homicidal gas chambers.
In contrast to The Extermination of European Jewry, which was published entirely without photographic illustrations, Sources of Holocaust Research contains three such illustrations (on pages 17, 58 and 59.) The first photograph shows a Jewish wedding in Holland in 1942. The second shows two bearded Hungarian Jews who had just arrived in Auschwitz in 1944, and the third a "bearded man in a fresco by Fra Angelico at the be- ginning of the 1 5th Century." If Hilberg had included an illus- tration of the ceiling of the morgue of Crematorium II at Birke- nau, the observant reader would have noticed that those four rectangular openings through which, according to witnesses, Zyklon B granules were poured into the gas chamber, are non- existent. Consequently poison gas could not have been intro- duced in the way witnesses have described. It is easy to under- stand why Hilberg chooses photos that are capable of arousing emotions but contribute absolutely nothing to understanding the "Holocaust."
Sources of Holocaust Research is more than 80% shorter than The Destruction of European Jewry, for which we are grateful; but even so, 255 pages of paper still had to be covered with printer's ink before they could be published as a book. In order to accomplish this, the author resorts to the same tricks he used in his main work: he overwhelms the reader with a flood of information that has nothing whatever to do with the Holo- caust. Distracting the reader with such themes as the prehistory of aryanization, newspapers, pamphlets, cards, and tickets, he includes the expropriation of Jewish ski outfits as well as a dis- cussion of the literary styles of documents and decrees. He even throws in an essay by a person named Wolf Gruner concerning "the exclusion of Jewish merchants from flea markets and the role of pawnshops in the expropriation of Jewish property."
In this way, he succeeds in filling his 255 pages without having to deal with sensitive subjects such as the known ca- pacities of Auschwitz crematories. Any analysis of such chime- ras as "assembly line murder in extermination camps" would collapse like a card house in the wind if its author dealt with significant topics.
3. Hilberg's Documentation Problems
On page 22, Hilberg attempts to explain the lack of docu- mentation about Jewish extermination as follows:
"On 20th February 1945, Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels ordered the systematic destruction of all secret and sensitive papers which had to do with Jews. " As his source for this he gives an "Order from Goebbels" with the following addendum:
"The original document was found at one time in the Federal Records Center in Alexandria. " From this formulation we perceive that the alleged order of Goebbels is not be found. Its existence cannot be proven. If Goebbels really gave such a verbal order, it remained a dead letter. Documents relating the National Socialist Jewish policies have survived by the ton; in his opus magnum, Hilberg quotes thousands of these, including many which were rejected as evi- dentiary material during the Nuremberg trials. In addition, there are no fewer than 88,000 pages of documents of the Central Construction Office of Auschwitz Concentration Camp in a Moscow archive8 that have been available to researchers since the early nineties. Not a single one of these documents provides any evidence of homicidal gassings whatsoever.
The total absence of documentary evidence for alleged mass murders in gas chambers presents a huge problem for all ortho- dox "Holocaust" historians. In an attempt to solve this problem, Hilberg resorts to the same kinds of tricks that he used in his main work.
He liberally supplies his readers with documents proving deportation, which nobody denies, but avoids the subject of ex- termination. An example of this is his printing of the timetable of the German Railway System dated 16th January 1943, be- ginning on page 86. We recall that in The Destruction of Euro- pean Jewry he dedicated seven boring pages to the diabolical German Railroad.
To explain the lack of documentation, Hilberg alleges that extermination orders were given verbally. For example he says Odilo Globocnik, the SS and police commander for the Lublin district, imparted genocidal instructions to Sobibor commander Franz Stangl on a park bench. His source for this is Gitta Ser- eny's book Into that Darkness? whose utter worthlessness is known to everyone familiar with it.10
In addition, Hilberg resorts to an ancient trick abandoned long ago by more versatile champions of Exterminationism such as Jean-Claude Pressac. This is the trick of "decoding" and "interpreting,"11 that is, reading something into documents that is not there. Thus he writes on page 132:
"One frequently used prefix is 'Sonder-. " At Auschwitz, where the murders could not be concealed forever, an ar- chitect of the Central Building Administration designed three barracks for storage of the belongings of Jews who had been gassed. He called these buildings 'Three barracks to store the personal effects of Special Treatment. ' Under- ground gas chambers became 'special cellars ' and ground level chambers were designated 'bathing facilities for spe- cial treatment.
A close examination of the documents in which the prefix "Sonder" occurs shows that it was occasionally used to desig- nate "execution," but in most instances had an entirely different meaning. As Carlo Mattogno has demonstrated, the "Barracks for Special Use" were simply barracks built for storage of the property of Jews who had been sent to the camp. The same was
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true of the "Bathing Facilities for Special Purposes" which were planned but never completed. These were envisioned as special facilities to combat typhus epidemics.12
The situation with mass executions of Jews on the Eastern Front was quite different. The first thing to be noted is that these events are documented, thus nobody denies they hap- pened. Debate over these shootings concerns the number of vic- tims and nothing else. The second thing to be noted is that we are dealing here with suspiciously extensive evidence in the form of "action reports" in which numerous massacres are listed with five figure numbers of victims. That the Germans would have allowed such inculpating evidence to fall into the hands of their enemies has evoked commentary from the Brit- ish-Jewish historian Gerald Reitlinger. Although he believes that exterminations of Jews were real, his capacity for critical thought is far greater than Hilberg's. He makes the following observation:13
"It is not easy to understand why the murderers would have left such bountiful evidence of their crimes behind. " The question of authenticity of the Einsatz reports has not been resolved. The alleged numbers of murdered Jews are often demonstrably false, as they contradict other documents as well as forensic investigations.14
On page 145 Hilberg reproduces a card sketch, which, along with other evidence, is intended to support his allegations con- cerning executions in the East. On this card the numbers of Jews shot by Einsatz Group A in various regions are repre- sented by coffins. The highest number of shootings is given for Lithuania, where, he alleges, no fewer than 136,421 Jews had been murdered as of 1942. This number does indeed appear in one of the Einsatz reports, where it is reported:15
"At the time of the Bolshevik invasion, according to a census made in 1923, 153,743 Jews were living in Lithua- nia. This represented 7.58% of the population... In numer- ous individual operations, a total of 136,421 Jews have been liquidated... Jews in Ghettos: In Kauen, around 15,000 Jews; In Wilna, around 15,000 Jews; In Schaulen, around 4,500 Jews. " Simple addition shows that the total number of allegedly liquidated Jews, when added to those still living in ghettos, is a great deal higher than the number of Jews present before the German invasion. This is only a part of the puzzling statistics, however:16
The same operational report for the adjoining country of Latvia states that around 25% of the Jewish population there had fled with the Bolsheviks. No corresponding exodus is men- tioned for Lithuania, however. This is very puzzling because the Lithuanian Jews had as little reason to expect good things from the Germans as did the Latvian Jews. Jewish participation in the Bolshevik terror there had been proportionately much greater than in Latvia and had enraged the native population.
A large part of the Lithuanian Jews had lived in regions, which had been annexed to the Reich after the German con- quest of Lithuania. At the time of the Einsatz report these Jews were still alive. According to Gerald Reitlinger, there were 40,000 such Jews in the area of Grodno at that time.17 Accord-
ing to the Korherr report,18 18,435 Jews still resided in the Konigsberg region at the end of 1942.
According to statistics prepared in Lithuania and based on original documents from the war years,19 there were 3,693 chil- dren plus a large number of elderly persons (up to age 90) who were living in the ghetto of Vilnius at the end of May 1942. Since they were unfit for work, one would expect that these Jews would have been the first victims of any policy of exter- mination. In a report on schools in Vilnius, the Jewish Ameri- can author Abraham Foxman points out that in October 1942, 1500 to 1800 children were receiving instruction there.20
Finally, material evidence of a mass murder of Jews in the alleged numbers is totally nonexistent. In the Lithuanian city of Marijampol in 1996, it was decided to erect a monument to tens of thousands of Jews who had allegedly been shot by the Ger- mans. They began excavations at the site designated by eyewit- nesses in order to locate the mass grave, but lo and behold, there was nothing there.21 Even if the Germans had posthu- mously exhumed and cremated those tens of thousands of corpses, as Hilberg and his consorts allege, any mass grave would still be easily identifiable because of altered configura- tions of the soil.
Under these circumstances, a conscientious historian would not unquestioningly accept field reports as an infallible source.
4. Eyewitness Accounts
Hilberg's only evidence of mass murders in "death camps," are eyewitness reports. Regarding these reports he feels com- pelled to make the following confession on page 55:
"Among these witnesses there are persons who might possibly have harmed other victims and still others who did not want to be reminded of those situations of weakness, helplessness or humiliation. Still others might have finally concluded that they personally had nothing interesting to relate if they had not spent considerable time in Auschwitz or jumped from a moving train or joined a partisan unit in the forests. " (emphasis added)
In other words, eyewitnesses have a tendency to make up stories. The logical conclusion would be that eyewitness testi- mony in principle should be approached with great caution. This is not Hilberg's conclusion, however. He accepts the crud- est nonsense that "Holocaust Survivors" can dish out, as long as it bolsters his contention.22
Three prominent examples of this are Filip Miiller, Rudolf Vrba and Elie Wiesel. Vrba and Wiesel appear as crown wit- nesses of Jewish exterminationism just two times each in Hil- berg's major work, but he quotes Filip Miiller's book Sonder- behandlung23 no less than twenty times, which is only six times fewer than the number of times he quotes the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf H6B.
In his disgusting bestseller, Miiller relates that he noncha- lantly ate cake in a cyanide drenched gas chamber. (This was no small feat since he would have to have been wearing a gas mask.) He also describes how "special unit" commandos gath- ered boiling fat from the burning bodies of gas victims with soup ladles and spread it over the bodies as a kind of supple- mentary fuel. At the beginning of his "Report of Experiences" entitled / Can Never Forgive,24 Vrba describes the high points
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of a visit by Himmler to Birkenau in January of 1943. He al- leges that Crematorium II was initiated into service with the gassing of 3000 Jews. It has been firmly established that Himmler last visited Birkenau in July 1942 and Crematory II was not placed in service until March of 1943, but this does not bother Hilberg in the least.
It also does not bother Hilberg that Wiesel, in his depiction of mass murders at Auschwitz in his book La Nuit,25 tells us that the murder weapon was not gas chambers at all. He claims that Jews were burned alive in fiery pits: still another gruesome fairy tale from orthodox Holocaust historiography. The only possible conclusion, which a serious historian can reach, is that Miiller, Vrba and Wiesel are bald-faced liars and swindlers, but Hilberg treats them all as credible sources in The Destruction of European Jewry.
In his newer book Hilberg merely points out that none of the three authors wrote his book by himself:
"Several authors, including the widely read Auschwitz survivors Rudolf Vrba and Filip Miiller, have enlisted the services of journalists}26^ Elie Wiesel, likewise an Auschwitz survivor, has written an account which, with the assistance of public lecturers, has undergone two significant meta- morphoses. " (p. 76f.)
In Hilberg 's works Jewish witnesses never lie, although they do make mistakes now and then:
"In addition to inexact numbers and narrative styles there are unfortunate errors caused by mistaken observa- tions and lapses of memory. [...] In the US court case of the revocation of citizenship of John Demjanjuk by an Ohio jury, five surviving prisoners of the Treblinka camp testified against him. They mistakenly identified him as 'Ivan the Terrible, ' a sobriquet which prisoners had given to a Ukrainian Kapo who allegedly drove Jewish deportees into gas chambers and turned on the gas. [...] // is true that Demjanjuk had been a guard in other camps, but he was not identical with Ivan the Terrible, ' he merely resembled him. After his extradition to Israel, where he was condemned to death, the mistake was finally discovered during an appeal before the highest Israeli court, and he was returned to Ohio. " (p. 209)
Hilberg fails to mention that a new suit to revoke the elderly Demjanjuk's citizenship has been under way for several years. This time he is alleged to have committed crimes in the Ma- jdanek, Sobibor and Flossenbilrg camps. As usual, the charges were "proven" entirely on the strength of eyewitness ac- counts.27 But this time, we can be certain that the witnesses will not make "erroneous observations" and there will be no "lapses of memory." Right, Professor Hilberg?
In Hilberg's universe, Jewish witnesses never lie; they just make honest mistakes. Likewise, German "perpetrators" never give testimony under coercion. Occasionally however they may be "possibly confused" or "indifferent to the accusations made against them."
In Hilberg's own words:
"When Rudolf Hofi, the former commandant of Ausch- witz, was interrogated, he might possibly have been disori- ented or indifferent to the questions put to him. In the sworn statement which he signed on April 5, 1946, the number of
persons killed at Auschwitz is given as three million, nearly three times the actual number}2^ Furthermore, one of the three extermination camps in the occupied area is errone- ously identified as 'Wolzek'" (p. 209)
The truth is that Rudolf H6B had been beaten for three days by a British team of torturers under the command of the Jewish sergeant Bernard Clarke when he signed the confession,29 as Hilberg very well knows.
The only two false witnesses to the "Holocaust" whom Hil- berg identifies as such are non-Jews. They are the Catholic Pole Jan Karski and the Swiss "Binjamin Wilkomirski" (actually Brune Doessecker.) Karski, who was a courier for the Polish exile government in London, traveled to Poland during the war. After his return he described an alleged mass murder of Jews in Belzec camp. According to Karski, the Jews were crammed into boxcars partially filled with quicklime, which slowly ate the flesh from their bones. The train full of martyred human flesh rattled and shook with their bellowing, as though be- witched. Hilberg made the following commentary on Karski's statement:
"In these reports, as well as in his book published dur- ing the war,[30] he [Karski] describes a trip to Belzec, which he made in uniform. According to his testimony, Estonian guard units were stationed there and a train from Warsaw had just arrived. It departed again with a load of deportees who, as corpses, were later thrown into huge pits. The truth is that there were no Estonian guard units in Belzec; trains from Warsaw did not stop there; and trains of deportees never departed from there. " (p. 215)
The assertion that trains of deportees never departed Belzec is unproven. Otherwise, Hilberg's criticism of Karski is correct. However, the principal witness for the alleged annihilation of Jews in Belzec is not Karski but rather Kurt Gerstein. An honest historian might characterize Gerstein's testimony as follows:
"In his reports, Gerstein mentions a visit by Hitler and Himmler in Belzec, among other things. In reality, neither man ever visited the camp. Furthermore Gerstein's testi- mony is filled with physical impossibilities, as when he says that 32 persons per square meter were packed into a homi- cidal gas chambers at Belzec. "
Hilberg never criticizes Gerstein's lurid fantasies, although he makes no mention of him in Sources of Holocaust Research. In his main work, he quoted him six times as a witness to ex- terminations of Jews in Belzec. Why does Hilberg reject the garbage of Jan Karski but not the equally malodorous garbage of Kurt Gerstein? Apparently it is for reasons, which have noth- ing to do with forensic verification. The "quicklime" method of mass murder has not been yet disavowed by orthodox historiog- raphy as has the "diesel exhaust" method described by Ger- stein. Furthermore the Gerstein report is the corner stone of the orthodox conception of Belzec Camp, in which Hilberg claims that 550,000 Jews were murdered.
The second false witness placed in the stocks by Hilberg is the infamous liar Bruno Doessecker alias "Binjamin Wilkomir- ski." This is what Hilberg says about Doessecker' s book Frag- ments:31
"The memoirs of an author calling himself Binjamin Wilkomirski have been published in Germany and translated
348
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
into several languages. In it, the author represents himself as someone who survived the "Holocaust" as a Jewish child. In reality he was neither a Jew nor a Holocaust survivor, and so under no conditions can the book be considered a "source of the Holocaust. " It is in fact a nonentity for researchers of the period from 1933 to 1945. " (p. 216)
In contrast with the falsifications of non Jewish Wilkomir- ski, the testimony of the hairdresser Abraham Bomba is any- thing but a nonentity for Hilberg:
"In the course of the interviews, quite a few survivors fell into a dilemma whenever a particularly painful or de- pressing subject came up. Abraham Bomba was a haircutter in Treblinka who had to cut off the hair of Jewish women who were about to be gassed. During the filming of 'Shoa, ,[32] Claude Lanzmann asked him for an exact depic- tion of what happened while the women were being shorn: Did Bomba cut their hair with scissors? Was there a mir- ror? How many women were in the room? How was Bomba thinking while cutting their hair?
'It was just too terrible... '
'Please tell us, we have to do this. We know this. ' 'I can 't do this. '
'But you must. I know it is difficult, I know, please for- give me. '
'Let's stop now... '
'I beg you to continue. '
Then he continues with his story, after one of the long- est pauses in the history of the movies. " Unfortunately, Hilberg spares us additional quotations of Abraham Bomba, for Bomba tells later that 60 to 70 Jewish women were crammed in a "gas chamber" of 16 square meters, and that they were sitting on benches as well — wasn't that just a little crowded?
We have to ask ourselves: why does Hilberg withdraw credibility from the liar Binjamin Wilkomirski but continue to support the equally fantastic liar Abraham Bomba? Whatever his reasons, they cannot be scientific.
5. Hilberg's Cheating Ways
Hilberg is not content with merely dropping embarrassing testimony of his star witnesses. In at least three places he re- sorts to outright deception:
a) Beginning on page 136, he writes:
"In November 1942, Himmler again addressed the sub- ject of shootings, after hearing of atrocity stories circulating in the US about soap being made from human bodies. Such reports had reached the US from Europe and caught the at- tention of the president of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Stephen Wise. Himmler was informed of a memorandum re- leased by Wise. Although he knew the rumors to be false, Himmler could not simply ignore the matter. He wrote the following instructions to his Gestapo chief, Heinrich Mutter:
Attached I am sending you an interesting report con- cerning a memorandum written by Dr. Wise which was re- leased in September 1942. In view of the great tide of Jew- ish emigration, I am not surprised that such rumors could arise in the world. We both know that there is a high mor- tality rate among the Jews who are put to work. You must
guarantee me that in every case of death, the bodies of dead Jews are either buried or cremated, and that nothing else can possibly occur. I instruct you to make inquiries in all quarters as to whether such an offense as mentioned in Point 1 has actually occurred. In all probability this is a lie which is being circulated worldwide, but any such offense must be reported to me, on your oath as an officer of the SS. '" Hilberg's cheating is evident in the first sentence, in which he claims that in this message Himmler is addressing anew the issue of the mass shootings. From the letter itself, however, it is entirely clear that Himmler is referring to the high death rate from natural causes which accompanied the "large scale emi- gration movement;" that is, deportations of Jews to the East. He is clearly ordering that the bodies of deceased Jews be either buried or cremated so that no rumors can arise, such as those about rendering bodies into soap.
b) In the section adjoining this passage, Hilberg further clouds his record with yet another dishonesty:
"Auschwitz was a camp which served several purposes. One of these was industrial production, in which large numbers of prisoners were used as slave labor. Jews, who made up by far the largest part of the arriving prisoners, were destined to be gassed, however. This could occur ei- ther immediately after arrival, or else periodically, after se- lection from among the camp inmates. In August of 1943, the four newly constructed gas chambers with crematoria were in service; and by this time several hundred thousand Jews had been exterminated. It was in the interest of the di- rectors of production facilities at Auschwitz to keep their Jewish work force, however. The following excerpt from the observations of an SS leader summarizes the content of this conversation at Auschwitz on the subject.
'Director Wielam expressed a particular concern. It was rumored that, for reasons of politics or law enforcement, one might have to contend with the removal of the highly skilled prison workers, or even all the prisoners, thereby suffering delays in work schedules. [Hauptsturmfuhrer] Schwarz promised priority consideration and assured him that the above mentioned disruptions would be unlikely. ' " (p. 137f.)
Here Hilberg is playing the trick of inventing something that does not exist. He is building a correlation between alleged mass gassings of Jewish prisoners and a topic, which he himself introduces.
The truth is that prisoners were constantly being transferred from Auschwitz to other camps. Naturally, the people responsi- ble for production were reluctant to have their skilled workers taken away, and they did everything they could to hinder such transfers. It was for this reason and no other that the above mentioned Director Wielam expressed concern about a "re- moval of skilled prison workers."
c) In conjunction with the loss of Jewish manpower, Hilberg writes on page 192:
"One should know that [...] the SS statistician Korherr had released his total of Jewish dead without taking into consideration the 363,211 Jews who were shot under the di- rection of the leading SS and police chief for Southern Rus- sia, Hans-Adolf Prutzmann. "
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
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Everyone who has read the Korherr Report knows that it deals with Jews who were deported rather than "Jewish dead." The reason why Korherr does not include "the 363, 211 Jews who had been shot" could be simply that the 363, 21 1 alleged murders do not exist.
6. The Ossified Historical Concept of Someone Afflicted with Autism.
If Raul Hilberg were not so deliberately deceitful, one could almost feel sorry for him. In 1961, when he published the first edition of The Destruction of European Jewry, it is possible that he might have believed his theses, by and large. The revisionist literature then in existence was of rather moderate quality, with exceptions such as Paul Rassinier's Le Mensonge d' Ulysses. Revisionism was not yet able to seriously challenge the official version of the destiny of the Jews during the Third Reich. In the following years and decades, however, revisionists steadily gained ground. Then came the first Ziindel trial in Toronto early 1985, shortly before publication of Hilberg's second "fi- nal" edition of his opus magnum. Called as crown witness for the prosecution, Hilberg was caught in a murderous cross- examination by Ziindel's defense attorney Christie, who re- duced him to a truly pitiable figure.33
More than fifteen years have passed since then, and orders from Hitler for extermination of Jews still have not been found. Exterminationist authors such as Gerald Fleming and Jean- Claude Pressac have burrowed through mountains of Ausch- witz archives in Moscow without finding the slightest evidence for the existence of homicidal gas chambers. Meanwhile revi- sionist authors relentlessly continue to publish new books and articles, which expose the fragility of the orthodox "Holo- caust." Even the disciples of Jewish annihilation are forced to drastically reduce the numbers of victims. Raul Hilberg in his old age is forced to survey the ruin of his life's work. He real- izes that nothing except transient political connections keep him from being unmasked as a charlatan and pseudo scientist.
One would expect an appropriate silence from such a person in such a situation. But no: Hilberg writes a book entitled The Sources of Holocaust Research obviously expecting the cus- tomary acclaim from fawning journalists. Instead of praise, however, the book has been met with ridicule by investigative historians. Like an autistic child he clings to his ossified picture of history. He persists in "unlocking" and "interpreting" docu- ments, meaning that he is still trying to impart meanings, which they never had.
At the very beginning of his book we encounter this amaz- ing statement:
"The extermination of the Jews on the European conti- nent during the Second World War was a historical phe- nomenon which has inspired a growing army of academi- cians to investigate it in all its aspects. I am one of these: I have spent many hours in libraries and archives. Occasion- ally I have even visited the locations where the draconian deeds were done. Still, it is only late in my life that I have begun to analyze the sources I have used. " (p. 9) Wouldn't Mr. Hilberg have done better to analyze his
sources, before he committed his 1,300 page "definitive" work
to paper?
Notes
First published as "Der unheilbare Autismus des Raul Hilberg" in Vierteljahres- hefte fiir freie Geschichtsforschung, 7(1) (2003), pp. 107-1 14. Translated by James Damon. Quotations retranslated from the German translation of this book: Die Quellen des Holocaust. Entschlusseln und Interpretieren, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt/Main 2002. All page numbers refer to this German edition.
1 Robert Faurisson, Ecrits revisionnistes (1974-1988), four vols., private edi- tion, Paris 1 999, p. 954 (vol. III).
2 Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, three vols., Frankfurt/M. 1997. The second and "definite" edition of his original English version The Destruction of the Euro- pean Jews, from which the German version originates, appeared in 1985.
3 Theses & Dissertations Press, Casphaw 200 1 .
4 Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, Quadrangle Books, Chi- cago 1967, p. 177. The text of this edition is identical with the one of 1961.
5 On p. 60, where Hilberg endorses Pressac's thesis, according to which the morgues of the crematoria in Auschwitz were converted into "gas chambers" only later on.
6 This "women's hair" is a homogenous straw blonde color, which leads one to conclude that it is probably flax.
7 In reality, most of these shoes had been produced by Majdanek inmates, who were working in the workshops of the local fur and garment factories: J. Graf,C. Mattogno, Conentration Camp Majdanek. A Historical and Technical Study, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2003, chapters I, V.
8 RGVA (Rossiskii Gosudarstvenni Vojenni Arkhiv, Russian State War Ar- chive). This archive is located at the Viborg Street in Moscow.
9 Vintage Books, 1985; Ger: Am Abgrund, Munich/Zurich 1995, pp. 1 17ff.
10 See in this regard Carlo Mattogno, Jiirgen Graf, Treblinka: Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2002, chapter I.
1 1 The subtitle of the German edition of this book is Decipher and Interprete, whereas the English subtitle is simply An Analysis.
12 C. Mattogno, „Sonderbehandlung" ad Auschwitz. Genesi e significato, Edi- zioni di Ar, Padua 2001, as well as C. Mattogno: "Keine Extrawurst: Sonder- behandlung in Auschwitz", VffG 5(4) (2001), pp. 452-454.
1 ' Gerald Reitlinger, Die Endlosung. Hitlers Versuch der Ausrottung der Juden Europas, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1 992, p. 225 ; Engl: The Final Solution, J. Aronson, Northvale, N.J., 1987.
14 Cf. re. this chapter 7 in C. Mattogno, J. Graf, Treblinka, op. cit. (note 10).
15 "Einsatzgruppe A: Gesamtbericht vom 16. Oktober 1941 bis 31. Januar 1942." RGVA, 500-4-92, pp. 57-59.
16 The arguments listed here were taken from chapter 7 of Treblinka, op. cit. (note 10), authored by C. Mattogno.
17 G. Reitlinger, op. cit. (note. ), p. 248.
18 NO-5193aswellasNO-5194.
19 Vilnius Ghetto, List of Prisoners, Volume 1, Lietuvos valstybinis zydu muzie- jus, Vilnius 1996.
20 Abraham. Foxman, "Vilna - Story of a Ghetto," in: Jacob Glatstein, Israel Knox, Samuel Marghoses, Anthology of Holocaust Literature, Atheneum, New York 1968, p. 90.
21 Ernst Gauss, Dissecting the Holocaust, Theses & Dissertation Press, Capshaw 2000, p. 44. Gauss refers to an article in the Lituanian newspaper Lietuvos Ry- tas.
22 For details I refer to my book Giant With Feet of Clay (see note 3). 2j Steinhausen, Frankfurt/Main, 1979.
24 / cannot forgive, Bantam Books, New York 1 964.
25 Edition de Minuit, Paris 1958.
26 In a footnote, Hilberg indicates that Vrba wrote his book in collaboration with someone named Alan Bestic, while Miiller wrote his with the help of someone named Helmut Freitag.
27 "Demjanjuk persecuted anew by US Jews," VffG 2/2002, p. 239.
28 Actually, about twenty fold. Furthermore, HoB stated in his confession be- fore the tribunal that in Auschwitz alone, as of the end of November, three million people had died (2,500,000 million from gassings and 500,000 from starvation and disease.) According to this confession, the total number of Auschwitz victims would have to have been much higher.
29 Rupert Butler, Legions of Death, Arrow Books, London 1 983, pp. 235ff.
30 Story of a Secret State, 1944.
31 Frankfurt upon Main, 1995.
32 Motion picture by French producer Claude Lanzmann, nine and one half hours long. Its entire text was translated into German; published in book form, entitled Shoa, in Dtisseldorf, 1986.
3j For this, see Barbara Kulaszka, Did Six Million Really Die?, Samisdat Pub- lishers, Toronto 1 992, pp. 22 ff.
350
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 ■ No. 3
Book Notices
By Francis Dixon
FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST
Louis Fisher, Nazi Saboteurs on Trial: A Military Tribu- nal and American Law. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2003. Hardcover. 200 pp. $29.95
A new study of the trial of eight Germans captured while on a mission to sabotage U.S. industrial and civil facili- ties in 1942. Fisher finds that their con- viction, and the speedy execution of six of the saboteurs, was enabled by serious abuses of due process, above all their trial in secret by a military tribunal after a hasty executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt (one that merits comparison with Adolf Hitler's "com- mando order"). An important book on an important case, more relevant than ever in light of post 9/11 measures that undercut due process in pursuit of security.
Richard Lukas, Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939-1945. New York: Hippocrene, 2003. Paperback. $14.95.
An expanded edition of a standard work on the travails of the Poles at the hands of the Gennans during the Sec- ond World War. Author Lukas never met an (anti-Polish) atrocity story he didn't like, and scrupulously omits any historical facts or considerations that tarnish Poland's World War II martyr- dom. A champion of the Polish national cause, Lukas writes frankly of the role of Poland's Jews played in imposing communist rule on eastern Poland dur- ing the first Soviet occupation, 1939-41. A new foreword by historian Nonnan Davies updates the long simmering, occa- sionally boiling, controversies between Poles and Jews over their respective roles during the war.
Clarence E. Wunderlin Jr. (ed.), The Papers of Robert A. Taft: Volume 3, 1945-1948. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. Hardcover. 584 pp. $65.00
It's often forgotten that Robert A. Taft, a conservative senator from Ohio who earned the sobriquet "Mr. Republi- can," won inclusion in John Kennedy's Profiles in Courage by his fearless and principled stand against the Nuremberg trials. This collection includes Taft's public statements and other source mate- rial on his stand against what he consid- ered to be a travesty of justice and a be- trayal of his own country's ideals and traditions.
of Dimona: Israel, Holmes and Meier,
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Yoel Cohen, The Whistleblower Vanunu, and the Bomb. New York: 2002. Hardcover. 352 pp. $24.95.
Seventeen years before America in- vaded Iraq to confiscate that country's still elusive weapons of mass destruc- tion, a technician employed at Israel's nuclear research center revealed top se- cret information about Israel's flourish- ing (and illegal) nuclear weapons pro- gram to the London Sunday Times. Soon afterward, the whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, was kidnapped from England and returned to Israel, where he was sentenced to eighteen years in prison by a closed tribunal. While Cohen's book is far from an unqualified defense of Vanunu, any focus at all on this latterday Man in the Iron Mask, who continues to languish in miserable conditions, is to be welcomed at a time when world leaders publicly ignore the Zionist state's large and potent nu- clear arsenal.
George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2003. 428 pp. $26.
An admiring tribute to the ability of a rather shadowy Congressman, Charlie Wilson (R-Texas), and a Greek- American CIA officer, Gust Avrakotos, to arm and fund the Afghan resistance to the Red Army's occupation of Af- ghanistan during the 1980s. The au- thor's enthusiasm for the operation, in which Afghan guerrillas armed with Stinger missiles drove out the Soviets and hastened the collapse of commu- nism, doesn't detract, for knowledge- able American readers, from a gradual awareness of nemesis, in the form of 9/1 1 and associated blowback at the hands of Is- lamic fanatics trained and armed by the U.S.
Christopher Simpson (ed.), War Crimes of the Deutsche Bank and the Dresdner Bank: Office of Military Government (U.S.) Reports. New York: Holmes and Meier, 2003. Hardcover. 432 pp. $45.00
More Holo-hokum from frenetic Christopher Simpson, author of various books on the eternal 'Nazi menace.' Simpson has mined the reports and rec- ommendations of the finance division of the U.S. military government — this book largely consists of reprints of these documents — and then glossed them
Charlie
Wilson's
War^
rvt
George Crile
The Revisionist ■ 2003 ■ Volume 1 • No. 3
351
with his own lamentations over the failure of the occupation au- thorities to abolish Germany's most important financial institu- tions and hang their leaders as war criminals. That the political wind was changing in Europe even while the disproportionately leftist and Jewish investigators were writing their reports is blamed more on reactionary U.S. elements than on Uncle Joe. No new historical information here— only old accusations.
Masao Shiosuki, Doctor at Nagasaki: "My First Assign- ment Was Mercy Killing". North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle, 2003. Paperback. 191 pp. $6.95.
Most Americans continue to regard the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as at worst a grim necessity, at best a humanitarian deed that "saved [American] lives." This book, written by a Japanese physician, will give pause to at least a few of those who defend history's only employment of nuclear weapons. It recounts his desperate ef- forts to treat the countless victims of terrible injuries from the detonation of "Little Man," as the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki was engagingly named. A sobering ac-
count by a true medical hero, Doctor at Nagasaki also includes a record of Dr. Shiosuki's efforts to alert the medical profession to radiation sickness and other long-term effects of atomic weapons.
Tony Bridgland, Waves of Hate: Naval Atrocities of the Second World War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2003. Hardcover. 256 pp. $32.95
A rare study of World War II atrocities that deals with vio- lations by all sides, Waves of Hate documents the sinkings of hospital ships and unarmed passenger liners, the ma- chine gunning or abandonment of en- emy lifeboats to their fates, and other departures from the code of naval war- fare. Numerous long forgotten or sup- pressed Allied excesses are considered, while author Bridgland deflates victor propaganda regarding incidents such as the sinking of the Laconia, trumped up into a terrible German crime in postwar British courts. A useful addition to revi- sionist libraries.
IIIIIWUJN_
"rtu first Assignment was
to' Mercy Killing"
Research News
From the Records of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, Part 3
By Germar Rudolf
1. From Single Prosecution to Giant Trial
As the first two parts of this series reported,1 the judicial in- vestigations concerning crimes committed in concentration camp Auschwitz were initiated in early 1958 due to the accusa- tion by Adolf Rogner, who was at that time in prison. Stuttgart prosecutor Weber had several times described Rogner as a "contradictory and psychopathic professional criminal" (v. I, p. 106r, also p. 85r).2 For this reason the prosecutor's office was unwilling to request the arrest of Wilhelm Boger. Then, on the basis of the testimony of the witness Paul Leo Scheidel, they decided to go ahead. One week after Scheidel's testimony the request was made (v. I, pp. 128f.) and the following day it was approved by the court (v. I, p. 130).
In a conversation with Hermann Langbein, the president of the Communist-oriented Auschwitz Committee, on Nov. 4, 1958, which was a month after Boger was arrested, Stuttgart chief prosecutor Schabel indicated he would,
"use every means to expand the investigation to all other members of the SS guard personnel of concentration camp Auschwitz who have made themselves liable for crimes for which the statute of limitations has not expired, so far as the German judicial authority can get its hands on them. "3
Parallel with the prosecution of Boger in Stuttgart, the reve-
lations by journalist Thomas Gnielka of the left-wing Frank- furter Rundschau brought about a gigantic judicial investigation in Frankfurt. On Jan. 15., 1959, Gnielka sent general prosecutor Fritz Bauer, in Frankfurt, documents from concentration camp Auschwitz, which recorded the dates when prisoners in Ausch- witz had been shot by guard personnel while trying to escape and who they were, and also an (incomplete) list of the guard detachment at Auschwitz (v. la, p. 1, 2/1-2/20).4
At the request of Dr. Bauer,5 the Federal high court decided that the prosecutions against 95 named former SS men who had served at Auschwitz should be combined and that all should be tried before the Land court Frankfurt.6
2. The Boger Swing
A certain amount of space was devoted to the so-called "Boger swing" described by the witness Scheidel in the last part of this series. According to the statements of various for- mer prisoners it was a torture instrument which the accused former Gestapo officer Boger used while interrogating prison- ers to force them to talk. Although I have so far analyzed only three of the more than seventy volumes of the investigation for the Auschwitz trial, it is still worthwhile to make a small list of the characteristics of this instrument as they have been de- scribed by various witnesses, see the table below.
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If one applied statistical methods to solve the puzzle of the Boger swing the most probable description would be that of Hugo Breiden. This is supported by the statement of the ac- cused Wilhelm Boger, who confirmed during his first interroga- tion that during his period of service "intensive interrogation methods" had been used, including blows with a baton, hanging by the hands tied behind the back from a hook in the ceiling, and also the use of the "swing", which Boger described almost the same way as the prisoner Hugo Breiden. Boger claimed that through his efforts the hangings from the ceiling were discon- tinued, and that he never administered more than 3 to 5 blows with the baton, so that the prisoners never suffered bodily harm.7 He also disputed that he had ever participated in any killings.8
3. Unbelievable Statements
3.1 General
Mere comparison of the diverse statements on the so-called Boger swing demonstrates that not all that the witnesses say can be taken at face value, even as to what they say is the source of their knowledge. In what follows, a number of state- ments that are unbelievable or at least suspect on various grounds are noted and briefly analyzed.
3.2 Josef Kret
Volume 1 of the Auschwitz notebook, which deals with the history of the punishment bunker of the political detachment in the main camp of Auschwitz, was introduced as evidence in the investigations.9 The second part of this notebook contains the report of Josef Kret on his own experiences. Part of this report was summarized as follows by the judicial chief investigator:
"A particularly feared capo [camp term for inmate su- perior] would, for pure pleasure, throw a lasso around his victim, draw it tight and then swing the victim back and forth until he was dead. "
When two bodies of approximately the same mass are tied together with a rope and then caused to rotate, they turn about a common center of mass which, depending upon the relative proportions of the masses, will be nearly in the middle of the rope. Therefore, as the said capo began to swing his victim around, he would himself be swung, since the same forces that act on his victim also act on him. If the victim were not a small child, the procedure described would be physically impossible and is proved to be a lie.
3.3 Wilhelm Boger
During his first interrogation, Wilhelm Boger was asked about the events on the "ramp" in Birkenau. Boger described this ramp correctly as a railway siding leading into the camp. During an investigation against SS members who were sus- pected of misappropriating property of the incoming prisoners, he stated he had only occasionally had anything to do with the ramp in Birkenau. Boger testified as follows about the sorting of the incoming prisoners:10
"Some prisoners were designated as able to work, and those not able to work were taken in goods trucks to the crematories for gassing. That was how the procedure worked with the incoming prisoner transports.
I observed the procedure in the course of my duty as- signment.
I would like to emphasize that I was never involved in the sorting of prisoners. "
It may be that Boger himself was never involved in the sort- ing, but what he describes here can not have taken place. The ramp in Birkenau was only completed in May 1944. Its head end ran between the two large crematories II and III, and it was only a relatively short distance on foot from the ramp to the crematories. It is unthinkable that goods trucks would have been used to carry incoming prisoners on the ramp to the cre- matories. Apparently Boger confused the sorting procedures in
Witness |
Description of the Boger swing |
Kind of testimony |
Source |
gymnastic horizontal bar, hands tied, drawn over |
|||
Paul Leo Scheidel |
knees, bar running between them, beating of naked buttocks |
own experience |
v. l,p. 112 |
Orli Wald |
wheel on which the prisoner was bound, rotated, beaten coming up, threat of head bumping on ground going down |
eyewitness of the apparatus, not the torture |
v. 2, p. 189r |
arms tied in front of legs, iron rod between backs of |
|||
Hugo Breiden |
knees and arms, laid on two iron poles, like gymnastic horizontal bar |
own experience |
v. 2, p. 217 |
Erwin Bartel |
consists of crank and shaft, prisoner chained onto them, beaten by turning the shaft |
observation as recorder of the po- litical detachment (Gestapo) |
v. 2, p. 221 |
Anatol Indulski |
hands tied together in back, hanging by the hands on a pole |
drawing by third party |
v. 2, p. 228 |
Feliks Mylyk |
wooden horse with iron pipe, iron pipe ran between bound arms and backs of knees, prisoner turned around the pipe in a circle and beaten |
eyewitness of the apparatus, not the torture |
v. 2, p. 235 |
Adolf Rogner |
head and feet tied together, stretched over gymnastic parallel bars, whipped |
eyewitness of the apparatus and the torture |
v. 2, p. 258 |
iron pipe runs between bound arms and backs of |
|||
Ludwig Worl |
knees, shaft laid on wooden horses, prisoner was turned around on the pipe in a circle and beaten |
hearsay |
v. 2, p. 316 |
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Birkenau with those done at the railway platform in the main camp at a time when the railway siding to Birkenau had not yet been completed. >From the main camp to the camp at Birke- nau the distance was nearly 3 km. Prisoners who were weak or unable to walk may in that case in fact have been carried by goods truck. Because of the distance, it would have been impossible to know firsthand the exact destination of these goods trucks in the camp at Birkenau. Therefore, it is clear that Boger has confused his personal experiences with things he has heard.
It is also amazing that Boger was never asked anything fur- ther about the gassings he mentioned. Since the supposed mass gassings constitute a much greater crime than that of which Boger was accused, one must wonder at the lack of interest of the examining officials. This lack of interest, however, is typi- cal, as most interrogators, whether police, prosecutors, defense attorneys or judges, were usually satisfied when their precon- ceptions were confirmed. No one had any interest in an investi- gation of what was stated.
3.4 CurtPosener
At the request of the Communistic Auschwitz Committee, former Auschwitz inmate Curt Posener filed a complaint against Boger, who, Posener asserted from his own experience, tortured prisoner Walter Windmilller to death. Posener stated:11 "After about three hours Bogner[sic] brought Wind- milller, who staggered badly and from whose pants leg blood flowed, back to the standing place. Windmilller came to stand behind me again, and was able to whisper to me that Boger had smashed his testicles and kidneys. " Any man will confirm without hesitation that no man would be able to stand up on the muster ground and whisper to the man in front of him when his testicles are crushed to the degree that blood flows from his pants. Posener did not write the truth.
3.5 Hugo Breiden
The witness Breiden, who has already been mentioned, re- ported frequently that there had been murders by shooting in the neck in concentration camp Auschwitz, and that in his opin- ion every officer in the camp was implicated in same, including Boger. He described such events as follows:12
"Let me recall the case of the prisoner Jakob now. He was a Jew who was attendant in detention barracks 11. Whether Jakob participated in shootings is something I do not know. I do know, however, that he was present at shoot- ings in the neck. With his powerful frame he knew how to hold those chosen to die by the arms, while the SS then ad- ministered the shot in the neck. "
Prisoners on their way to execution have always been bound for the simple reason that practically no one will go willingly to be executed. Therefore it is nonsense to state that some strong- man had to hold the person to be executed by the arms. This is apparently an imaginary production.
Since 1928 Breiden had been punished by law frequently, the last time being a sentence of 1 8-months at the reform school and three years loss of civil honor for procuring. He was proba- bly one of the common criminals who were sent to concentra- tion camp Auschwitz.13
3.6 Herbert Kurz
The following comment occurs in the interrogation tran- script of this witness:14
"In June and July 1943, from Block 21 of concentration camp Auschwitz on three occasions in all he personally saw Boger kill altogether 200 prisoners by shooting in the neck with a weapon specially adapted for short range use in front of Block 11, the bunker. In one case he counted the dead prisoners who had been killed by Boger in this way, and there were 98. On the other two times there had been fewer. Boger had carried out other shootings, but he had not been able to see them. He stated that a Jew who was also a prisoner was made to hold fast to two other prisoners with outstretched arms, so that Boger could shoot them in the neck from a distance of about 8 m. " It is somewhat improbable that a middle-level interrogation officer should carry out such mass shootings, and would do so alone. It is also improbable that someone should remember the number of executions so closely after 15 years. Further, it is doubtful that a weapon would have been specially adapted for the purpose of such executions. It is also improbable that any- one would kill by shooting in the neck from a distance of 8 m., and it is especially improbable that anyone — how did this wit- ness know that it was a Jew? — could or would hold the culprits tight with outstretched arms. People intended for execution are generally tied up securely and not held tight in such an absurd way — with outstretched arms! One can not kill 98 persons one after the other in this way. This testimony is false, and the wit- ness is not believable.
3.7 Anatol Indulski
This witness, already noted through his unorthodox testi- mony on the Boger swing, reported on his claimed experiences with Boger in his letter to the Communistic Auschwitz Com- mittee. Probably truthfully, he writes that during his time at Auschwitz he had had an account at the camp commissary where he could deposit small amounts of money for safekeep- ing. Because at one point a sum was not paid out that he be- lieved was owed him, he complained, whereby the political de- tachment was called in due to suspicion of misappropriation. Indulski then stated that Boger berated him without cause, yelled at him and brutally beat him, after which the money he was owed was paid to him.15 If the disposition of the SS to this prisoner had been so brutal and reckless, how probable is it that he would have been paid his money? The two things do not fit together. The witness apparently thought he needed to clothe his positive experience — the political detachment made sure he received his money — with a negative experience in tune with the Zeitgeist.
3.8 Adolf Rogner
After the prosecutor's office had gathered several witness statements from former Auschwitz prisoners incriminating Wilhelm Boger, they began to take even Adolf Rogner seri- ously and interrogated him. Rogner served up his colorful con- coctions by the bushel:16 - He could make concrete accusations against 1,400 to 1,600
persons, of which he could name about 160. No man can
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have so much particular knowledge over so many persons from his own experience. This demonstrates again Rogner's metier: professional accuser and perjured false witness.
- The small babies of incoming prisoners were supposedly ripped from the arms of their parents and thrown onto a pile — 40-50 babies, whereby those on the bottom were crushed or suffocated. From there the babies were allegedly thrown onto a goods truck and then thrown still living into the booming crematory ovens. Every father and every mother will confirm that he or she would rather be shot than to permit such a treatment of his or her children. Such a treatment by the SS would have necessarily led to an upris- ing of the prisoners that could only have been bloodily sup- pressed by a massive use of firearms. Therefore, it can be completely excluded that any treatment even remotely like what was described ever happened.
- Rogner claims that he hid behind a tree near the ramp in Birkenau, from where he saw the following:
"Therefore I kept myself hidden behind a big tree and watched what was happening. Then I saw how Boger went off to the side with a Jewish girl about 15 years old who had just come in on the last transport. [...] When Boger and the girl were about 150 m. from his other col- leagues— / myself was about 15-20 m. from the scene of the incident — Boger spoke to the girl and right afterward hit her powerfully, causing her to fall to the ground un- conscious. I could not understand what Boger said to the girl, but I assume that he wanted to use the girl for sexual purposes. After the girl had been stricken unconscious, Boger could no longer accomplish his shameful purpose, because the selection commando had come closer in the meantime and he would be afraid to be seen. Boger had torn some of the clothing from the girl 's body, and some of it he had cut off with his pocket knife — or maybe it was a stiletto. After the girl was stripped down to her under- clothes and stockings [...]. Then he drew his pistol and shot the girl once each in the left and right breast. Then he stuck the pistol barrel in the girl's genitals and fired one more shot. " When the interrogating officer — who had evidently kept his head — commented that because of these shots Boger' s activities would have been noticed, Rogner adjusted his statement by adding that in Birkenau "throughout the camp, every day at all times of the day and night" one heard shots, so Boger' s murder would not have been noticed. Also no one would have noticed the corpse right away. This is the sort of Nazi Sado-pornography that has become so successful. But there are two catches. First, not even in Auschwitz was there gunfire at all hours, and, in any case, three shots at the ramp would not have gone unnoticed. Second, there were no trees near the ramp in Birkenau near which Rogner could have hid.
- Rogner further asserts that children arriving at the ramp were so terrified by the brutality of Boger and other SS members that they clung to the legs of Boger and the SS members, whereon Boger shot them. As if children would cling to the legs of those terrorizing them.
- Rogner asserted further:
"After the arrival of another prisoner transport in Auschwitz II Boger took one of the babies that lay on the floor, unwrapped it from its diapers, so that it was com- pletely naked, took it by the legs and hit it by the head against the iron edge of the goods car, at first lightly and then with much greater force, until the head was com- pletely squashed. Then he twisted around the arms and legs of the already dead child and threw it to the side. " Rogner supposedly watched all this take place at the
ramp while he hid behind a tree — but there were no such
trees there.
- In addition, Rogner asserted he had witnessed approxi- mately 30 further single murders committed by Boger, that they had been committed in a similar or more gruesome way, and that he had witnessed Boger' s excesses of torture, which he observed "unnoticed through the keyhole or through the window" — how childish. Boger stated that the room in which he applied "intensive methods of interroga- tion" could not be seen into from outside.17
The greatest liar in all the land, the denouncer RQgner is that man. This comment that the official who interrogated Rogner added to the transcript is especially shocking:
"The interrogation record of Nov. 4., 1958, in which Rogner described new facts of the case with particularly sadistic features, on which he had previously made no statement, was taken after Rogner requested that he be al- lowed to consult the confiscated green notebooks with the inscription "KZ Auschwitz " to help his memory. Rogner is allowed the opportunity to inspect these notebooks before the interrogation. In the years 1945/46 Rogner wrote de- scriptions in these notebooks of such events in concentra- tion camp Auschwitz. "
Thus Rogner's perverse brain-spooks quickly developed into "facts of the case" and it is openly admitted that Rogner was allowed to "refresh" his "memory" from the propaganda material he had assembled.
3.9. LUDWIG WORL
This witness stated that in Auschwitz 50 to 300 persons were shot per day, about 100 per day on average.18 This would mean that practically all registered prisoners who died in Auschwitz were shot, which is clearly not the case.
4. Believable Statements
4.1 General
When he was confronted with the partly wild accusations of former prisoners, Wilhelm Boger made a significant point in his response:19
"What kind of refutation can I make to accusations based on pure imagination? We, and especially former SS judge Dr. Konrad Morgen, can speak to my conduct, [...] In 1943 or 1944 Dr. Morgen was given the task of investigat- ing cases of brutality and corruption in the concentration camp. [...] / worked for Dr. Morgen at the time as an inves- tigating officer trying to uncover such illegal activity. I can produce prisoners who worked for my office, to testify to the way I performed my duties. [...] / find myself trapped, how-
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ever, since I am certain that any one in this bunch of former prisoners who makes an exonerating statement is subject to the active hate and merciless revenge of his earlier fellow prisoners, and is marked as a collaborator and enemy of the common cause of revenge. In particular, I am certain that no governmental power is able to protect these people from the organized revenge of conspiratorial former fellow pris- oners. "
While one can expect that accused persons will attempt to deny responsibility for or to minimize the crimes of which they are charged, at the same time one can expect the opposite be- havior from the victims. That does not mean that anything an accused person says that is self-incriminatory must be consid- ered true, but it should almost always be considered that what- ever a former victim says that is exculpatory is true, assuming that the accused can no longer pose a threat to him. The last is certainly the case with respect to former SS members, who since 1945 have been generally subject to an open season worldwide without legal restraint. In contrast to the very influ- ential and well-organized former prisoners' organizations, since the end of the war there has arisen not one organization that could represent the interests of former SS members in a politi- cal way.
The following passages and excerpts from witness state- ments are presented because they contradict the usual cliches with unusual honesty and credibility or merely because the wit- nesses have resisted the general hate hysteria that even then hung over the concentration camp system of the Third Reich.
4.2 Artur Hartmann
This witness was assigned to potato peeling duty because he suffered a foot injury when he arrived in the camp, which he remembers as the duty assignment given many sick or unfit-for- work prisoners — which contrasts with the standard cliche that such prisoners were gassed. Every week those who had become fit for work were reclassified and sent to other tasks. He re- ported the case of an SS man who had mistreated prisoners and who was later executed for this and other crimes. In any case, he was not mistreated by the concentration camp personnel.20
4.3 Henryk Bartoszewicz
This witness worked in the leather works during part of his imprisonment in Auschwitz. He reports in emotional terms on the fact that Boger interrogated him and some of his comrades because of their membership in a resistance organization and kicked him. Amazingly, Bartoszewicz says nothing about the so-called "Boger swing" or about other worse tortures. Al- though a member of the underground, he was not mistreated any further and he was apparently even able to secure himself favored treatment through bribery. He erred however, in believ- ing that Boger had ordered the execution of several of his parti- san comrades. Boger was merely an interrogation officer.21
4.4 Aleksander Gorecki
This prisoner reported how Boger came into the infirmary quarters of the main camp of Auschwitz to fetch a prisoner who had just undergone bladder surgery and was scheduled to have prostate surgery. Setting aside whether Gorecki's statement
makes sense in detail, it is interesting to discover the notewor- thy fact that prisoners in Auschwitz were given surgery to pre- serve or restore their health.22
4.5 Adolf ROgner
Even Rogner' s testimony is not completely falsified. For example, with respect to his stay in concentration camp Dachau he reported that in May 1943 he was treated in the infirmary there with the result that he was later able to work again.23
4.6 Konrad Lang
Konrad Lang was an inmate of Auschwitz from 1940 to 1 945 and in 1 943 was chief capo in a plant of the German Ar- maments Works, where he supervised approximately 2,000 prisoners. He claims to have had dealings with Boger only once, with respect to an attempted sabotage investigation:
"Lang has only heard secondhand that Boger was "very keen" and that the prisoners were afraid of him. Lang claims he has never heard of killings or shootings of pris- oners by Boger or on Boger 's orders. " Apparently Lang was fairly high in the prisoner heirarchy in the camp and presumably came in contact with many prisoners as well as with many officials of the camp. This makes it utterly amazing that he knows nothing of murders by Wilhelm Boger. If Lang had something to hide (collaboration with the Germans, mistreatment of prisoners) he would have been blackmailable and would have done everything possible not to arouse the ill- will of the prisoner organizations — that is, he would have testi- fied against Boger, even to the point of telling lies. But he says nothing accusatory about Boger. Apart from love of the truth, I can think of no reason why Lang would testify the way he did.24
4.7 Moritz Salomon
Salomon claims that he was so badly mistreated by Boger that he was subsequently "fit for gassing". Nevertheless, a miracle happened and Salomon was sent to the infirmary and restored to health.25
4.8 Felix Lubecki
"As I have already explained, I never witnessed mistreat- ment or other brutalities on the part of Boger. But he was gen- erally feared by us prisoners in concentration camp Auschwitz and everyone stayed away from him. People said Boger hit peo- ple, but no prisoner ever told me he had been hit by Boger."
Witness Hugo Breiden said that Boger' s methods of torture were "known worldwide."26 How can it be then, that Lubecki knew nothing about them? Either he was grossly out of touch, in which case he was not fit to be a witness, or professional criminal Breiden and his ilk were not honest, which we have al- ready shown to be the case elsewhere.
4.9 Jakob Lewinski
The testimony of Lewinski is unquestionably the most im- pressive that was made in 1958 during the investigations for the Auschwitz trial.27
According to his testimony, Lewinski, who was classified as a half- Jew by the Nuremberg Law because he was the son of a
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Jewish father, was sent to Auschwitz because he had refused to divorce his wife, who was classified as a full- Jew. His wife was apparently deported at the same time he was, but not with him, and he never heard from her again. She was later declared le- gally dead, but no one ever knew what her fate had been.
Lewinski claims that it was only later that he heard that the sorting on arrival at Auschwitz was what meant the difference between life and death in the gas chamber. In any case, he does not say that he already knew that.
He described his living conditions in the work camp Ausch- witz-Monowitz as "humane".28
"Inside the camp there was a bordello with 10 women,
but they were only available to Reich German prisoners.
The prisoners received up to 150 DM [should be RM —
Reichsmarks] scrip per week for their labor, with which
they could purchase mustard, sauerkraut, red beets and so
on [...]
The camp had generally good sanitary facilities, bathing and showering rooms and an excellent health-care facility. [...] For provisions we received 1/3 [loaf of] commissary bread three times a week, 1/2 commissary bread 4 times, and additionally a bowl of coffee in the morning, 20 grams of margarine 5 times, one time a small amount of marma- lade and one time a piece of cheese. In the afternoon at work there was the so-called Buna soup, nutritionally worthless. In the evening there was a thicker soup, partly beets, partly cabbage etc. "29
Lewinski stated that because of the 12-hour workday with insufficient nourishment there was initially a high death rate, but conditions improved and the death rate was substantially reduced.
"Our camp commander was SS Obersturmfuhrer Schottl, who was sentenced to death at Dachau, supposedly for crimes he had committed before he came to our camp, because as camp commander of our camp he would never have deserved the death penalty. "30
Bear in mind: this prisoner was not only imprisoned for un- just cause, but also lost his wife because of this government. He must have possessed decency of high order to be able to make such a statement. One can only say, hats off!
Lewinski had a clash with the political detachment because he had bribed a civilian worker at Buna in order to receive lar- ger amounts of money and packages from his mother in Berlin. He shared the contents of these packages with the aforesaid ci- vilian worker, but word of this illegal arrangement leaked out and he was ordered to appear before Boger to be questioned. Because the money he was sent amounted to several thousand Reichsmarks, Boger suspected Lewinski of planning a large- scale breakout. Lewinski described how Boger questioned him. First he was made to stand at the camp gate where he watched the work commando march out, which they did "as if to the sound of a brass band".31
Next he was "intensively" interrogated by Boger, that is, whipped on the seat of the pants to make him talk. Since Lewinski knew nothing about an escape attempt or other illegal activity, and denied having done anything wrong he irritated Boger to the point where the latter hit him with his fists. Finally Boger gave up and believed Lewinski that there was no con-
spiracy behind this case of corruption. Lewinski said the tran- script of the interrogation that he was given to sign was exact and objective. Three SS members consulted together on what should be done with Lewinski:32
"At this point in the proceeding one of the three told a
funny story, which was not half bad [...] and made me smile
despite my miserable condition. "
That irritated Boger once more, whereupon he gave Lewin- ski five more strokes of the whip, which caused Lewinski to almost lose consciousness. Then supposedly Boger said:
" 'Now, now, do not pretend, you have held up extremely well until now. "'
When Lewinski mentioned that he had had nothing to eat or drink the whole day, Boger fed him from his own provisions. As punishment for this incident of corruption Lewinski was given a week's stay in detention barracks. Boger then desig- nated Lewinski for "special treatment" — Lewinski stated Boger instructed the SS orderly as follows:33
" 'Take this shitbird to the barracks, but tell the barracks
capo he should treat the man especially decently and give
him first-class grub.
The official interrogating Lewinski wrote this dry com- ment:34
"Witness Lewinski knows nothing about the mass shoot- ings or single murders with which the suspect Boger has been charged. "
Consequently, Lewinski was classified as a "useless" wit- ness for the purposes of the prosecution. From a historical viewpoint, however, Lewinski 's statement is a priceless exam- ple of truthfulness and decency.
Notes
First published in Vierteljahreshefte fur freie Geschichtsforschung, 7(1) (2003), pp. 95-101. Reproduction of the first two pages of the transcript of the interro- gation of Jakob Lewinski are reprint there; more pages are posted on the inter- net (vho.org/VffG/2003/1). Translated by Michael Humphrey.
1 Cf. TR 1(1) (2003), pp. 115-118; 1(2) (2003), pp. 235-238.
2 All volume and page numbers refer to: Staatsanwaltschaft beim LG Frankfurt (Main), Strafsache beim Schwurgericht Frankfurt (Main) gegen Baer und An- dere wegen Mordes, ref. 4 Js 444/59.
3 Memorandum of public prosecutor Herder, Nov. 5, 1958, Vol. 2, p. 243.
4 Gnielka received the documents from Emil Wulkan, member of the com- munity council of the Jewish community of Frankfurt. Wulkan had received them from an acquaintance, who claims to has salvaged them from the Less- ing Lodge in Breslaus shortly before this city was occupied by the Red Army; vol. la, pp. 24f. More documents were about the Auschwitz camp personnel was delivered on Jan. 29, 1959, by Dr. Franz Unikower, vol. la, pp. 5, 6/1-6/5.
5 Feb. 15, 1959, vol. la, pp. lOf. On Jan. 29, 1959 (vol. la, p. 7), Erich Schiile from the Zentralen Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen (Central Of- fice of State Judicative Administrations) in Ludwigsburg told Dr. Fritz Bauer that the investigation in this matter had been taken over by the Zen- trale Stelle. The German Federal Supreme Court, however, reversed that decision. The cases pending in Stuttgart and in Ludwigsburg were subse- quently transfered to Frankfurt; cf. letter Schiile/ZSt of June 19, 1959, vol. la, p. 32; letter OStA Vogel, FFM, June 26, 1959, vol. la, pp. 41f.
6 2 Ars 60/59, in the files vol. la, pp. 15-19.
7 Vol. l,pp. 140f.
8 Vol. 2, p. 266. Rudolf Aschenauer was Boger's defense lawyer, cf. p. 269.
9 Vol. l,pp. 125f.
10 Vol. 1, p. 142. Large parts of this protocol are illegible. Boger's wife claims to be totally unaware of any crimes her husband was accused of and stated to have no konledge at all about what was going on in the camp; vol. 1, pp. 206-213.
11 Letter of Oct. 1, 1058, vol. 1, p. 144R.
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Interrogation of Oct. 27, 1958; vol. 2, p. 218.
Memorandum of the interrogating officer Haug, vol. 2, p. 22 1 .
Interrogation of oct. 30, 1958; vol. 2, pp. 221a/b.
Letter of Oct. 22, 1958; vol. 2, pp. 228f.
Interrogation of Nov. 4, 1958, vol. 2, pp. 247-261.
Vol. 1, p. 141.
Interrogation of Nov. 25, 1958; vol. 2, p. 318. Interrogation of Oct. 14, 1958; vol. 2, pp. 166f.
Vol. 1, p. 132. Date and second page of this interrogation protocol are il- legible.
Copy of statement of Aug. 30 [1958]; vol. 2, pp. 223ff. Letter to Auschwitz Comite, Oct. 20, 1958; vol. 2, p. 226. Vol. 2, p. 250.
Interrogation of Nov. 7, 1958; vol. 2, pp. 279f.
Interrogation of Nov. 14, 1958; vol. 2, p. 283. Salomon further maintained that he was able to watch Boger's tortures from his hospital bed and that
Boger was responsible for the alleged first gassing experiments with 38 in- mates using Zyklon B in the basement of the arrest building, for which pur- pose Boger allegedly "had boards nailed over the windows", ibid., p. 284. He did not explain which purpose this nailing of boards served. Those win- dows would not have become gas-tight by this. Vol. 2, p. 217.
Interrogation of Nov. 24, 1958, vol. 2, pp. 305-310.
Ibid, p. 305.
Ibid, p. 305R.
Ibid, p. 306.
Ibid, p. 307R.
Ibid, p. 310.
Ibid, p. 31 OR.
Letter of Nov. 24, 1958, to public prosecution at the District Court Stuttgart; vol. 2, p. 304.
Letters to the Editor
In General
To the Editor:
World War II is the biggest war that has ever happened. Therefore it is necessary that an honest objective investigation be carried out by our government as to the true cause of this un- fortunate war.
Everything that is taught about this war and all the material that is available to the public is only the one sided biased point of view.
Year after year after year, anti German movies are made. Even in movies and television shows that are not about World War II, there are anti German comments. There are almost no other movies made about World War II, except anti-German movies.
Hardly any movies have been made about the sufferings of American and allied prisoners of war, military and civilian un- der the Japanese. No movies have been made about communist atrocities and allied atrocities.
When Germany invaded Poland for good reason because of the Danzig Corridor, England and France declared war on Germany. When communist Russia invaded the eastern part of Poland, England and France did not declare war on communist Russia.
Then there is our alliance with communist Russia. Our alli- ance with communist Russia must be denounced, and all com- munist atrocities and allied atrocities must be made known.
It is time that the government of this country conduct an honest and objective investigation into World War II.
Charles E. Donner, USA
Blame on You
Dear German
Because you are now producing TR on a regular basis, I find that my German has gone down the toilet, since I no longer have to wade through tortured German sentences a kilometer long in order to find the separable prefix at the end of the string
of ten thousand nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and participles!
So, I blame YOU for producing such a fine English lan- guage journal; my German was coming along rather well until you began to meddle with my progress.
Robert H. Countess, PhD
P.S.: Seriously: keep up the great work!
Profound Criticism
Dear Germar,
I wish to congratulate you to the great achievement of hav- ing launched two revisionist "flagships," the Vierteljahreshefte fur freie Geschichtsforschimg and The Revisionist. I have fol- lowed them from the beginning and find them unrivalled for profundity and criticism of the sources within the field of WW II history. The articles published in the 25 issues of VffG cover an admirable broad spectrum and it is hard to find any detail that has not been at least touched on. I can think of just one such theme, viz. the mass murder (decreed by Hitler) of men- tally deranged patients and incurables suffering pain.
I guess that a comparison between the decision, the order- ing, the equipment and the performance of this program with the same components of the alleged Holocaust program would be extremely elucidating.
With kind regards
Carl O. Nordling
Re.: P. Grubach, "All Men Are Equal— But Are They Really?," TR, 1(2) (2003), pp. 139-150
To the Editor:
As I noted in my article, one of the key arguments of the late Stephen Jay Gould and his colleagues that deny the reality of significant genetic differences between the human races, is that there are no genes unique to any race.
After the publication of my article, I read an important 1982 paper, "Genetic Relationship and Evolution of Human Races,"
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by Masatoshi Nei and Aran K. Roychoudhury. Evolutionary Biology, volume 14, pp. 1-59. On page 12 we read:
"In this connection it is worthwhile to note that the Ne- groid population has many unique alleles [alternative forms of a gene] at both protein and blood group loci. " So, refuting the claim that there are no alleles unique to any race, the Black population does in fact have some unique al- leles.
Furthermore, modern science can now determine with rea- sonably high confidence the race of an individual from a sam- ple of his DNA. Indeed, a private genetics laboratory recently determined with reasonably high confidence the race of a south Louisiana serial killer suspect from a sample of his DNA, thus refuting the claim that "race is a biologically meaningless con- cept when applied to humans." You can read the entire article about this at
www.2theadvocate.com/stories/060403/new_profile00 1 .shtml
The Revisionist is to be commended for its courage to ex- plore the race issue. Our world is plagued with racial and ethnic violence, and it is only by taking an honest look at racial differ- ences will we ever be able to formulate rational, humane and just solutions to these racial problems.
Paul Grabach
Re.: R.H. Countess, "A Provocative History of the Aryan Race,", TR, 1(2) (2003), pp. 227-229
Dear Germar!
It seems to me that Kemp's series is not meant to be a scien- tific work, but was written to create a myth supporting the self- understanding of the white race. Experts might complain about missing references and about simplification, but it is one char- acteristic of a work creating an identity that it offers an over- view, yet does not address all objections discussed by experts.
Considering the blunt and huge lies dominating the minds of the masses (see the articles by Grabach and Whitney in the same issue), Kemp's book should be welcome. It emphasizes the history of the white race, and as such it is much better founded on facts than many other similar works, thus correcting our view of the history of mankind.
The Revisionist is a scholarly magazine, whose readers might not emphasize the need for belief and faith, but for seek- ing knowledge and facts. However, one should keep in mind that this attitude is the exception rather than the rale. Most peo- ple have a need to believe in something. They usually orient themselves according to what their environment, their commu- nity considers to be true. They feel secure in such a community. If their belief is refuted or shown to be untenable, they simply change their belief — yet again merely on a basis of faith. The desire for faith and belief cannot be satisfied with scholarly de- liberations, but it can be satisfied with a work like Kemp wrote it. This is the importance of Kemp's book. His descriptions are easy to understand, yet despite their simplicity, the facts are presented much more accurately than in those flawed works, which were filled with just as many cliches. These flawed works are used to create guilt feelings and to make members of the white race susceptible for blackmailing. This political abuse alone justifies a book as Kemp wrote it, which appeals to sen- timents supporting the identification of white people with their race. Scholarly works cannot achieve this. Whether or not we like such feelings is immaterial. Modern behavioral science has shown that unsatisfied emotions cannot simply be turned off. They will only get misguided. How huge emotional needs for group identification are can be seen in Germany during world cup soccer games, the only occasions where the German au- thorities permit the masses to live out their desire for group identification.
T. Pedersen, Denmark
In Brief
Atrocity Propaganda in U.S. Field Dispatch
On May 24, 1945, the following propaganda lie was pub- lished in the U.S. Army periodical The Field Dispatch about the concentration camp Dachau:
"Although no torture chambers were seen, stories of cruelty were a dime a dozen. One prisoner, who had spent ten years in Dachau told of human cement mixers operated by SS guards up to four years ago. He said live prisoners were fed to these grinding machines to emerge as nothing more than human hash. " (20th Armored Division, Spring 2000, p. 11)
Furniture Dealer Causes Uproar
Because a furniture dealer in the German city of Hildesheim gave his furniture items names like „Adolf, „Hermann", „Rommel", „Paulus," the local Jewish community filed a crimi-
nal complaint for glorification of the Third Reich. The local In- dustrial and Commerce Chamber considered measures against its politically incorrect member as well. (Stuttgarter Nachrich- ten, Dec. 4, 2000)
Fiihrer Beetle Marked for Renaming
In the 1930s, a blind beetle feasting on insect larvae was discovered in Slovenian caves. The discoverer Oskar Scheibel gave the species the name „Anophtalmus Hitleri," and as such the beetle was classified internationally. Scheibel, who lived in the Slovenian City of Laibach, was apparently either an admirer or an adversary of the then German Reich Chancellor. Because of its name, this beetle is today traded for prices up to $2,000.-. In order to erase any reference to Adolf Hitler, even in the hindmost caves of Europe, the beetle will now be renamed. (Suddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 10/11, 2002)
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New York Revisionist Attracts Attention
Michael Santomauro owns the New York company Room- mate Finders, an apartment referral service. But he is also a very active revisionist spreading his views by email and over his website (RePortesNoteBook.com). This news was worth a double column in the New York Times, because a few of San- tomauro's roommate customers had complained about unsolic- ited emails with views "critical of Jews". (NYT, Jan. 20, 2003)
Book Review Caused Uproar in England
Because the prominent British Journalist A.N. Wilson posi- tively reviewed the book The Israeli Holocaust Against the Palestinians in the London Evening Standard, the Jewish Chronicle demanded that Wilson be sacked and an apology be issued by the paper's publisher. The latter came about instanta- neously, including the deletion of Wilson's review from the newspaper's website. Co-author of the book and the reason for this uproar is U.S. citizen Michael Hoffman II, one of the most active revisionist writers of the last 20 years.
Unprovoked Attack
"U.S. presidents have a rich history of taking the truth and transforming it in the pursuit of foreign policy objec- tives they want to achieve. In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt took the fact ' that a German submarine had fired on an Ameri- can destroyer to issue a 'shoot on sight ' order for all Ger- man submarines in the Western Atlantic. On September 11 of that year (yes, Sept. 11), Roosevelt addressed the nation, declaring this 'unprovoked attack' was like a sniper in a schoolyard. Just as Bush handled Iraq, Roosevelt argued the U.S. had to act and act quickly. The facts came later. Congressional hearings in 1941 proved the United States actually provoked the attack that caused the sub to fire. The truth hardly mattered. The Nazis then, like Saddam Hussein now, were the personification of evil. "
(Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2003) www.chicagotribune.com/news/ nationworld/chi0306250048jun25, 1 ,571 0743.story
Similar Lies — Similar Liars
In January 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, manipu- lated by Henry Morgenthau, Jr., his Treasury Secretary, created the War Refugee Board (WRB), which fabricated its infamous report on the German extermination camps — Auschwitz and Birkenau.
In September 2001, President George W. Bush, manipulated by Paul Wolfowitz, his Deputy Defense Secretary, created the Office of Special Plans (OSP), which fabricated untrue reports about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The OSP is headed by Abram Shulsky. Inside the OSP, the four people specifically in charge of the WMD dossier are called 'The Ca- bal', from 'Cabala'; even Le Monde mentioned it (Jacques Is- nard, Le Monde, June 7, 2003, p. 7).
NB: On June 17, the French daily Le Monde published an ironic front-page article entitled (in French): "Saddam was evil, therefore he had prohibited weapons." Subsequently, Robert Faurisson sent a one-sentence letter to Le Monde, meant for publication: "Hitler was evil, therefore he had gas chambers and gas vans." This sentence was not published.
Move to Revoke Pulitzer Prize
In 1932, the Pulitzer Prize went to a foreign correspondent who concealed a famine and the deaths of millions of Ukraini- ans. Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow correspon- dent from 1922 to 1941, once called Josef Stalin "the greatest living statesman." Malcolm Muggeridge, Moscow correspon- dent for the Manchester (England) Guardian, once called his colleague Duranty "the greatest liar I ever knew." Ukrainians now want this prize to be revoked. (Chicago Tribune June 25,
2003) www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-030624041 ljun25, 1,404 1091. story
Ernst Ziindel Treated as Terrorist
On May 1, 2003, German-born revisionist Ernst Ziindel was officially declared a security threat to Canada by the Canadian authorities and subsequently transferred to an isolation cell of Ontario's high security detention center. The reason for this may be that Ernst Ziindel tried to introduce documentary evi- dence for his defense proving illegal activities of the Canadian authorities. Ziindel has appealed against the pending deporta- tion order. This appeal will take place in camera, i.e., under ex- clusion of the public and partly even in the absence of the de- fendant and his legal representative. This appeal appears to be the last legal relief preventing Ziindel 's deportation to Ger- many. (Toronto Star, May 8, 2003)
Under pressure from supporters of Ernst Ziindel to de- nounce his imprisonment, Amnesty International has instead is- sued a policy statement declaring it has no concerns over his incarceration and that it does not consider him "a prisoner of conscience:" (National Post, June 17, 2003)
"Amnesty International has reminded the Canadian government that numerous allegations of possible commis- sion of hate crimes have been made against Ernst Zundel, largely stemming from his position with respect to the Holocaust. Those allegations must be investigated, leading to charges if borne out by the evidence. "
Austrian Engineer Frohlich Arrested in Vienna
On Saturday, June 21, chemical engineer (Dipl. Ing.) Wolf- gang Frohlich (51) was arrested in Vienna, Austria, and taken to prison. For seven years, Frohlich had sent to jurists, members of parliament, politicians and journalists, thousands of copies of his writings, in which he says that the alleged wartime extermi- nation gas chambers are a lie. Remarkably, he suffered no real legal consequences for quite a while. Then, following the pub- lication in 2001 of his 368-page file Die Gaskammerlilge (The Gas Chamber Lie), the authorities decided to arrest him. But he went into hiding, and the police apparently made no serious ef- fort for three years to find him.
One More Censorship Authority in Germany
Germany's authorities must have considered their country's tough censorship laws and regulations to be too mild, so the media surveying authority of the state of North-Rhine- Westphalia (Medienaufsicht) decided to force German internet providers to disable any access to right-wing internet sites. The Internet providers affected had to file a speedy complaint against this within a few weeks to be able to fight this adminis- trative move. (Siiddeutsche Zeitung, Sept. 14, 2002)
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Escalation of Censorship and Surveillance in Germany
Several years ago, the German authorities failed to enact a law permitting the wire-tapping of journalists. But now the German Constitutional High Court decided that such wire- tapping is permissible if done in an attempt to arrest criminals. According to a telecommunication expert testifying at the Ger- man High Court, half a billion(!) phone calls are being auto- matically monitored in Germany every day(!) in the search of wanted criminals. This amounts to eight phone calls daily for every adult in Germany. {Spiegel, March 7, 2003)
Three Years in Jail for Music CDs
Because he produced and distributed music CDs with mod- erate and extreme right-wing songs, German historian and pub- lisher Adrian PreiBinger (38) was sentenced to three years im- prisonment by the District Court of Dresden. PreiBinger, who harbors revisionist views, had already spent ten months in pre- trial arrest. (Neues Deutschland, Dec. 21, 2002)
€1,200 Fine for Insulting German Authorities
Because he accused the German government of black money crimes and corruption in a public speech, German citi- zen Gerhardt I. (45), a sympathizer of the right-wing National Democratic Party, was sentenced to pay a fine of €1,200 by Judge Christian Kropp of the County Court of the German town of Sondershausen. (Thiiringer Allgemeine, March 20, 2003)
Starting in 2004, Revisionist are Fair Game in Europe
In 2004, the new European arrest warrant will be in effect, allowing for the immediate arrest and transfer of citizens of any member nation of the European Union to another member na- tion of the EU. This ends the hitherto common and complicated practice of formal extradition requests for criminals residing outside of the country which seeks their arrest. With this, even those European countries become insecure for Revisionists who do not have laws outlawing controversial views on the 'Holo- caust.' Since the German authorities for instance maintain that Internet 'thought crimes' are always committed where the ille- gal information reaches the consumer, any revisionist with pub- lications posted online and residing or traveling within the EU may be in danger of getting arrested. {Daily Telegraph, Feb. 18, 2003) In the meantime, England has confirmed that it will not execute foreign arrest warrants against 'thought criminals.'
'Book Burning' at New Zealand University
The academic journal History Now that contained an article by lecturer Dr Thomas Fudge, linking Holocaust Revisionist Joel Hayward's persecution to medieval religious dissent and witch-hunting, was pulped on orders of history department head Professor Peter Hempenstall. {The New Zealand Herald, July
22, 2003) www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3513941& thesection=news&thesubsection=general
Jews Prevent Film Screening
Victoria's Jewish community has failed to stop the screen- ing of a film by Holocaust revisionist David Irving but may ap- peal the decision. An application for an interim injunction pre- venting the screening of The Search for Truth in History at
Melbourne's Underground Film Festival was dismissed yester- day by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Festi- val director Richard Wolstencroft said the decision was a vic- tory for the freedom to express unpopular beliefs. "We don't support David Irving' s ideas but we do support his right to freedom of speech," he said. "Australians do have the right to hear his perspective." The Jewish Community Council of Vic- toria claims that the film promotes Irving's assertion that the Holocaust is a 50-year myth. {Sunshine Coast Daily, July 8, 2003) On the night of the screening of the film, the theatre owner cancelled the meeting because outside the venue about 150 Jewish thugs threatened physical violence if the screening went ahead.
Australia enacts Tough New Terrorist Laws
The Senate approved sweeping new powers for Australia's security organization ASIO whereby anyone, from 16 years upwards, can be detained who is not suspected of committing any crime. Anyone thus detained will have immediate access to a lawyer. Greens Senator Bob Brown is unhappy: "As you're walking out the door from your first detention you can be ar- rested and brought straight back in again," he said. The Democ- rats' Brian Greig says the law is a radical departure from estab- lished legal principle. "The detained person will be required to prove that they do not have the information that ASIO says they have," he said. One redeeming feature of these draconian laws is the sunset clause that requires the laws to be re-submitted to Parliament after three years. {Australian Broadcasting Corpora- tion, News, June 26, 2003.) Note on a WWII British Precedent: Regulation 18B: On May 23, 1940, Britain's war-time premier, Winston Churchill, enacted Regulation 18B whereby anyone could be arrested and imprisoned without an arrest warrant.
Government Sponsored Grave Desecration
More than 50 years after the end of WWII, the name on the graves of those Germans are to be removed, who fell victim to the Allied post-war lynch justice during the Dachau and the Nuremberg trials and who are buried in Landsberg, Bavaria. This was decided by an "expert commission" in early summer of 2003 in the legal department of the Bavarian government. Due to the resistance of the Bavarian Greens, Landsberg's city authorities, a Landsberg citizen association, and several patri- otic individuals of Landsberg, a complete destruction of the Landsberg graveyard was prevented for the time being. Para- graph 304 (1) of the German penal code reads:
»He who illegally [...] damages or destroys graves, will
be punished with up to three years in prison [...].«
Jewish In-Fighting over Belzec Memorial
Norman Salsitz of Livingston, N.J., has taken legal action in the US District Court in Washington against the American Jew- ish Committee. He claims that a $4 million memorial being built to honor alleged 600,000 victims at the Belzec extermina- tion camp in Poland is desecrating the remains of Jews that "the Nazis burned, ground up and mixed into camp soil in a ghastly cover-up effort".
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington launched the Belzec project in the early 1990s to remember
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camp victims. Polish authorities conducted test boring at the camp in 1998 in an effort to map out a grid around the mass graves that would enable construction to begin without disturb- ing Jewish remains. The test boring went into human remains, which is considered a grave desecration by certain Jewish groups. (JTA, June 25, 2003) So forensic investigations of crimes against Jews are not kosher?
Germany and the US Sign Holocaust Accord
The U.S. and German governments signed a joint agreement to preserve Holocaust sites in Germany. "The sites serve as a reminder of the atrocities committed by the Nazi dictatorship, something we must never forget and will not forget," German Ambassador H.E. Wolfgang Ischinger said at the signing cere- mony in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The agreement was negotiated by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
and was signed for the United States by Warren L. Miller, commission chairman. (Washington Times, May 20, 2003) How do German Holocaust sites constitute 'American Heritage Abroad'? Jewish, yes, but American? Or is there an identity?
Argentine President Orders Probe into Country's Nazi Past
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner on Wednesday ordered a probe into whether officials covered up the extent of exiled National Socialists' links to the South American country's gov- ernment after World War II. Responding to requests from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the U.S. Congress, the govern- ment launched an investigation into the history of National So- cialists— such as Adolf Eichmann, who found refuge in Argen- tina after the war. (Ha 'aretz, June 26, 2003)
Updated: July 25, 2003
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The so-called Leuchter Report about the alleged gas chambers of Auchwitz has been subject to massive criticism. In 1993, Rudolf, a researcher from a German Max-Planck- Institute, published a forensic study about the alleged gas chambers of Auschwitz which irons out the deficiencies of the Leuchter Report. The Rudolf Report is the first English edition of this sensational work. It analyzes the evidence on the Auschwitz gas chambers and exposes the fallacies of various failed attempts to refute Rudolf's Report. The conclusions are quite clear: The alleged gas chambers of Auschwitz could not have existed. In the appendix, Rudolf describes his unique persecution. "These scientific analyses are perfect. " H. Westra, Anne-Frank-Foundation, "[T]he report must be described as scientifically acceptable. " Dr. H. Ramuz, Professor of Chemistry 455 pp., b/w & color ill., bibl., index; pb: $/€30.-/£20.-; hardcover: $/€45.-/£30.-
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