The Right's Magic Beyond Tea Parties, p.3

TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH PublicEye ASSOCIATES SUMMER 2009 • Volume XXIV, No.2 $5.25 Remembering the New Right Political Strategy and the Building of the GOP Coalition

By Richard J. Meagher hen the Washington Post ran an Wobituary for Paul Weyrich on its front page last December, the casual reader could be forgiven for not recognizing the name. But those who followed conserva- tive politics inside Washington probably approved of the significant placement. Weyrich was the creator or co-creator of a dozen prominent conservative institutions over the past 35 years, and hosted weekly meetings over that span where conservative activists and government officials shared ideas and strategies with each other. While no single person is responsible for the strik- ing success of conservative policies and politics since the 1970s, Weyrich probably comes closest to deserving that credit. Weyrich was at the center of what in the Reagan era was called the “New Right.” This moniker, typically contrasted with the “Old Right” of Robert Taft and Barry David Paul Morris/Getty Images In February, California mosques discovered the FBI had hired a con man to infiltrate their communities. Goldwater, is often misunderstood. Many journalists and scholars have misused the From Movements to Mosques, Remembering the New Right continues on page 5 Informants Endanger Democracy IN THIS ISSUE By Thomas Cincotta Letter to the Editor ...... 2 n February,2009, members of the Islamic Monteilh for a while. Back in 2007, the local ICenter of Irvine learned that the Federal chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Battle Over Labor Law Reform ....3 Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had hired Relations (CAIR), alarmed by his talk of Book Reviews ...... 18 Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old fitness jihad and plans for a terrorist attack, instructor and convicted con man, to infil- reported him to Irvine police and secured Reports in Review ...... 21 trate their mosque and keep it under sur- a three-year restraining order against him. Eyes Right ...... 23 veillance. Members had wondered about From Movements to Mosques continues on page 11

THE PUBLIC EYE1 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye

LETTER ThePublicEye To the Editor, Publisher Tarso Luís Ramos You are and have been doing a wonderful job with The Public Eye; it always Editor informs/horrifies me. I really appreciate the time and effort it takes to publish. I’ve been Abby Scher, Ph.D there... . Design/layout However, in the spring issue, the editorial says, “The magazine was founded in the Hird Graphic Design 1970’s by the National Lawyers Guild to publish the latest news...” Actually, the maga- Printing zine was cofounded by me and Harvey Kahn; we published for a few years (1975-80?) Red Sun Press and then, after floundering, asked Chip Berlet to take it on via the National Lawyers Guild Editorial Board Civil Liberties Committee. It then migrated to Political Research Associates. Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain Thomas Cincotta • Frederick Clarkson Founded by mid-1970’s sounds right; I believe it went to NLG by the end of the 1979, David Cunningham • Gillian Kane surely by 1980. My copies are in storage at the moment but I do have a 1991 edition Surina Khan • Jean Hardisty • Roberto Lovato that was sponsored by the NLG Civil Liberties Committee and published by Investiga- Katherine Hancock Ragsdale Tarso Luís Ramos • Abby Scher • Holly Sklar tive News Features. Letter continues on page 4 PRA Political Research Associates

Founder and President Emerita Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D

Staff Tarso Luís Ramos, President Alen Abdula, Data/Web Master Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst Pam Chamberlain, Senior Researcher Thomas Cincotta, Project Director Kapya Kaoma, Project Director Cindy King, Business Manager Charles Ocitti, Finance Director Abby Scher, Editorial Director

Interns Mohamed Brahimi Kris Coombs Maria Planansky Karen Rodriguez

Board of Directors Pardis Mahdavi Supriya Pillai Emelia Rallapalli Rene Redwood

The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates. Annual subscriptions are $21.00 for individuals and non-profit organizations, $10.00 for students and low-income individuals, and $36.00 for libraries and institutions. Single issues, $5.25. Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add $9.00 for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. Please make checks payable to Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837. 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. © Political Research Associates, 2009. Website: www.publiceye.org All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322

Andy Singer ISSUE 64

THE PUBLIC EYE2 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye COMMENTARY Battle over Labor Law Reform Shows True Power of the Right By Abby Scher crisis “100 times as grim as 9/11,” the ome people may enjoy watching the people were being “brainwashed” SRight thrash around trying to find its into complacency by the media and way in the Obama Age, but I take the elec- soon “the face of big brother will be tion results and their aftermath as a sign of exposed and the slogans of a classless a country dangerously divided.There really one party system are revealed to us.”1 was a stark difference in the major party can- In a desperate search for relevance to its didates, and 46 percent voted for the guy shrinking electoral base. the Republican who lost. 59,946,378 is a lot of people.This Party embraced the language of suspicion, Source: Liberty Counsel website. political force isn’t going away. conspiracy, and betrayal. Far from pushing During the McCarthy Era of the early the conspiracy-minded away in hopes of would let workers form a union if a major- 1950s, the anticommunist movement fed finding a vital center, Newt Gingrich and ity sign cards saying they want one, taking off of disgruntled Republicans who could other GOP beltway heavies threw their away the power of employers to ignore the not accept that huge influential chunks of weight behind the anti-Obama, anti-tax cards and demand secret ballot elections their party accepted the New Deal and the “tea parties,” and Republican congress- instead. It also pushes the contract nego- role of the government in regulating cap- men, mayoral candidates and the like lined tiations into binding arbitration after 90 italism.They saw America’s new regulations up to speak even though many protestors days if talks are fruitless, since companies and modest aid for people tossed by harsh despised them as much as the Democrats. that don’t beat unions at the ballot box often business cycles as outright property theft In their scramble, neither the Republi- do by stalling at the negotiating table. and communism. That the New Deal can Party nor Christian Right organizations Now they would have incentive to close the asserted federal power over the states could like Focus on the Family have a pretty face bargain. mean only a loss of political sovereignty and to put on their politics. No Ronald Reagan, But one by one, the business lobby has American liberty. Feeling disenfranchised not even a George W. Bush with folksy peeled back crucial support from Democ- not just by Washington but parts of their mannerisms disarming the nation. But rats so that the heart of the bill, “card own party, the Republican Right created the question is not who will be the next check,” is in jeopardy. To counter both an alternative universe of betrayal, suspi- Republican savior or the new Ralph Reed union donations to Congress and the over- cion, and conspiracy. deploying marketing intelligence and belt- whelming support of Americans for unions, This spring’s tea party protestors reveled way connections for his Christian Coali- they pump ready money at southern in the language of the Old Right, the same tion. The question is whether the Right’s Democrats like Senator Blanche Lincoln language warning of incipient socialism that institutions are strong enough even in the of WalMart’s home state of Arkansas and Republican operatives rolled out in their wake of electoral defeat for them to win key insinuate with $20 million worth of prop- attempt to defeat Obama in 2008 and victories in such areas as health and work- aganda that union thugs will become that television and radio pundit Sean Han- ers’ rights that ensure reactionary domi- Americans’ new slavemasters and take nity channels from some strange archaic nance of the sectors progressives need to away their freedoms.2 source. The news stories and photos told move the country closer to justice. The The corporations opposing EFCA had the story: answer to that question is clearly yes. Don’t no trouble getting Republicans to vote The audience, which was quite large be distracted by the tea parties and think against it since the White men who tend despite a heavy rain, was told that that only Fox News zealots are left to fight to vote Democratic also tend to be union Obama was leading the country on core issues. members. White men in unions went for toward “dictatorship.” The govern- Tosee the huge economic and ideolog- Obama by 18 points, when White men in ment, we were told, was creating a ical resources at the Right’s disposal, you general went for his opponent by 16 points.3 need only look at the wavering chances of You don’t need donations from WalMart the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or Home Depot to convince you to get on Abby Scher is editor of Public Eye and a which would make it easier to organize a board, if you are a Republican counting sociologist. union and actually get a contract.The bill votes.

THE PUBLIC EYE3 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye

Nor do you want to give unions the ide- to decide whether to have secret ballot elec- They can give organization to the exurban ological advantage in a downturn when tions or card check violates “the cornerstone and suburban base of the Right – the more people wonder, maybe for the first time, of our democracy.” privatized areas of the country, where you whether companies really have their best The news that almost a third of com- socialize in private clubs or churches, sup- interests at heart and whether they as indi- panies being organized fire workers trying port school vouchers, drive in your own viduals really have the economic power to to unionize, and almost half threaten to cars, and ignore the home foreclosures control their own lives. close the plant—all undemocratic viola- that give lie to an easy belief in personal So here, at least, the bickering Repub- tions of the secret balloting process—must responsibility and individual freedom that licans are in lockstep. They are backed by not have reached him. And is it democracy undergird your identity in the marketplace. the smears and power politics of venerable for companies to drag out the election But if the tea parties are earthy, derid- union busters like WalMart and the U.S. process so long that 40 percent of elections ing Obama’s policies as “white slavery,” for Chamber of Commerce—not as warm never take place? But Specter is now right instance, the group’s official leadership and fuzzy as you might think from your where he likes to be, the powerbroker still seems to lack the right-wing populist local Chamber dinners—and outright negotiating with Iowa SenatorTomHarkin touch in formulating their rhetoric. While front groups like lobbyist Richard Berman’s on a watered down alternative to EFCA that they glibly target union taskmasters and propaganda mills with names like Center won’ttakeaway workers’ supposed freedom.6 greedy government bureaucrats, so far for Union Facts and Employee Freedom Tying together the tea parties and the their official materials ignore other famil- Action Committee.4 anti-EFCA battle are not just the Repub- iar scapegoats that could give their politics “We need to make sure every worker has licans and their donors but the new group more zing – like undocumented immi- the freedom to choose what’s best for them- Americans for Prosperity,a rabid free mar- grants, certainly a popular foil for those with selves and their families,” is a typical line. ket outfit launched in 2003 with the help economic grievance.The 1300 immigrant- EFCA will “take away free and fair demo- of Kansas billionaire David Koch. His fam- related bills submitted by local and state leg- cratic elections,” charge Berman and the ily’s Charles G. Koch Charitable Founda- islators last year testify to that. Chamber of Commerce.5 You would think tion joins with corporate and other longtime In the 1950s, William F. Buckley, Jr., they were labor’s champions from all the funders of right-wing institutions like the tried to groom the language of the Old patriotic red blooded language they use. Bradley Foundation to support 24 national Right, removing ugly anti-Semitism and But the faux populist language works its staff in Washington, and 41 regional staff name calling while retaining its glorifica- charm, even though corporate funded PR working in 19 states.7 Together they tion of a free market, the White race and men created it in the first place. When managed to summon 400,000 signatures anti-democratic sentiments. It seems out- Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter on a petition opposing Obama’s stimulus landish that Americans for Prosperity and announced he would no longer back the package, so the group has some heft. the rest of today’s Right will be able to labor legislation, he used language lifted Along with sponsoring local tea parties, groom their vision of a nation that derides right out of their press releases, saying giv- Americans for Prosperity created a “Save the idea of climate change, keeps the free ing workers not their employers the right My Secret Ballot” tour of the states that will market a humming (though the notion is probably feed into a ballot campaign to bar rank mythology), and dissolves the sepa- LETTER continued from page 2 card check through changes in state con- ration of church and state so your favorite We actually founded it to raise the spec- stitutions. Its “Hot Air” tour opposes religious group could discriminate in the tre of the rise of the Right (surprise!) and “climate alarmists” and regulation trying delivery of government services. But the the public/private collaboration of the to limit harmful emissions, including cap EFCA struggle shows we should not under- intelligence agencies during the heady and trade legislation backed by Obama. estimate the enduring conservative com- days of the Watergate break-ins, the CIA “Families in South Bend were happy to bination of front groups generating lies for hearings, COINTELPRO, etc. We were bring their children out to see the seventy- the media and corporate lobbyists. Let us watching Phyllis Schlafly, Anita Bryant, foot tall hot air balloon emblazoned with hope their old magic does not keep unions LaRouche, Rees, etc. It seems the FBI was the message ‘Cap andTradeMeans: Higher weak when we need them most. 8 watching us—our first stranger/volunteer Taxes. Lost Jobs. Less Freedom.’” was an old FBI informant who created our Between the petition drive and the tea End Notes parties, it seems they are a group to watch, 1 “AnnapolisTeaParty: U.S. Government Creating Crisis back page advertisement. Precocious as we ‘100 Times As Grim As 9/11” Legum’s New Line, April were, we were told that we were “hysteri- and may become home to a reliable right- 15, 2009. http://www.juddlegum.com/blog/2009/04/ cal, the Right was no threat.” wing voting base while being utterly silent annapolis-tea-party-us-government-creating-crisis-100- on the “family” issues energizing conser- times-as-grim-as-911/ Sorry to raise this, but one hates to see 2 Jordan Green, “Labor and business battle for soul of South- history lost. vative churchgoers.That certainly seems to ern Democrats,” Facing South, Institute for Southern Stud- Sheila O’Donnell be the goal given all the people in the field. Stinson Beach, CA BATTLE OVER LABOR LAW continues on page 22 THE PUBLIC EYE4 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye REMEMBERING THE NEW RIGHT cont’d from page 1 term to refer to conservatism in general, or the cost. With Weyrich gone, and the rest College Republicans. Youthorganizations, included as part of it conservative leaders of his colleagues also dead or marginalized, in fact, were where many New Right fig- who are wholly unrelated.1 But the “New it is a good time to look back and see ures learned the art of politics; Viguerie had Right” refers to a force that is both smaller exactly what the New Right accom- gotten his start fundraising for the Young and of greater scope than conservatism as plished—and what their legacy might Americans for Freedom (YAF), a conser- a whole. Eagle Forum founder Phyllis mean for today’s Republican politics. vative youth group shepherded by William Schlafly, herself often placed under the F. Buckley, Jr.4 Viguerie later started rais- New Right umbrella, called the phrase “a What Was the New Right? ing money for conservative candidates for term of art for the Weyrich group,”2 demar- he “New Right” refers both to a move- Congress. cating a handful of conservative opera- Tment and a group of like-minded In 1972, the key moment for the New tives. But it also indicates something greater conservative activists who came together in Right happened when fellow YAF mem- than just a group of individuals.The New the 1970s and built an effective political ber Lee Edwards—later unofficial historian Right not only helped bring conservatives of the conservative movement—intro- to national power in the late 1970s, but duced Viguerie to Blackwell. Viguerie had changed the nature of the Republican already developed a reputation as a prodi- Party and partisan politics in Washington By arguing for political gious fundraiser, building a bedrock con- for decades to follow. servative mailing list from the federal Republican politics today, at least at action on issues like election records of Goldwater donors.5 As the domestic level, centers on an alliance Blackwell noted later, “It was rumored between free market economics and Chris- abortion, school prayer, that he had behind his desk a large faucet tian cultural conservatism. It was the New that he could turn on, and money would Right that opened the door to the social and creationism, the come out for whatever campaign he worked issue activists and Christian evangelicals for.” But by the early 1970s, Viguerie’s who now make up the Republican voter New Right helped make agenda had broadened: he told Blackwell, base. Just as significantly, these operatives “Morton, I want you to come help me build harnessed the energy of the new wave of activist traditionalism the conservative movement.”6 conservatism during the 1970s to propel Blackwell introduced Viguerie toTerry the GOP back into national governing a reality. Dolan, who was then active in the Young power. Without Reagan, of course, there Republicans, and Paul Weyrich.While he was no Reagan Revolution; but it is hard had served as a staffer for prominent to see how the revolution happened with- Senate Republicans, Weyrich also made a out Weyrich and his colleagues, either. force for the Republican Party out of exist- second career out of developing conserva- Today in the apparent age of Obama, ing networks.There were five key strategists: tive counters to liberal institutions. For conservative forces may seem headed back Weyrich, the institution-builder; Richard example, he helped launch the Heritage to the 1950s, a time when free market, small Viguerie, the direct-mail fundraising guru; Foundation think tank in the early 1970s government standard bearers were mar- Morton Blackwell, a Republican insider to provide a conservative counterpoint to ginalized except when hunting Commu- who worked for Viguerie; grassroots organ- the then-liberal Brookings Institution, and nists. (Even GOP victories during that izer Howard Phillips; and Terry Dolan, the conservative Republican Study Com- period were led by establishment moder- who headed the group’s political action mittee in Congress to offset a similar lib- ates like Eisenhower, who basically accepted committee. Almost all had cut their polit- eral caucusing organization on the New Deal economic reforms such as Social ical teeth during Barry Goldwater’s presi- Democratic side. Security, corporate regulation, and a dential run of the previous decade. As The group began to meet regularly and stronger federal role in governance.) But the Blackwell later recounted, “All of us had develop ways of promoting conservative Republicans now seem determined to stick something to do with the Goldwater cam- ideas and causes. Perhaps the chief dis- with the New Right playbook, no matter paign. We weren’t high enough in the cam- tinction between them and previous “Old paigntoknoweachother,butour Right” constellations was what scholar Richard J. Meagher teaches political science involvement with Goldwater credentialed Gillian Peele called a “new mood” that 7 at Marymount Manhattan College. His us for each other.”3 Blackwell had been a included a “determination to succeed.” article “Tax Revolt as a Family Value: How 1964 GOP delegate for Goldwater from his Their predecessors seemed more concerned the Christian Right is Becoming A Free Mar- native Louisiana—in fact, the youngest about being right than winning political ket Champion” appeared in the winter 2006 delegate at the San Francisco convention— battles, said Blackwell. Conservatives issue of The Public Eye. and later became executive director of the seemed to think that “we just needed to

THE PUBLIC EYE5 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye logically prove that we were right, to log- ically prove that our people were better than them. But that’s not the real nature of politics; winners are determined by the number and effectiveness of the activists over time,” he said.8 In this regard, Black- well and his colleagues were clearly influ- enced by the successes of the different liberal social movements and causes of the 1960s. As Viguerie later noted, “all the New Right has done is copy the success of the Old Left.”9 So the New Right began to teach themselves “how to market your ideas,” as Viguerie wrote in a 1978 newslet- ter. “Successful politicians do not bore the voters.”10 The New Right began to make them- selves known during the early to mid- 1970s. Weyrich began hosting official coalition meetings in 1973, and Viguerie held his own strategy sessions as well. Pictorial Parade/Getty Images Viguerie and Blackwell also restarted the After losing the GOP Presidential nomination in 1968, Ronald Reagan swept to victory in 1980 with the national Conservative Political Action help of rightwing strategists who helped create a new coalition of economic and religious conservatives. Conference that lay dormant after the Goldwater defeat, creating a more formal To supplement their networking and used their connections to help GOP con- venue for conservatives to strategize and grassroots organizing, the New Right also servatives. For instance, Viguerie had make political connections. The group’s issued a number of publications for both assisted Jesse Helms in building the efforts at building a national coalition grassroots conservatives and Washington National Congressional Club, which dis- brought them into contact with former elites, including Viguerie’s New Right Report tributed money to GOP candidates. Nixon administration official Howard newsletter and Conservative Digest maga- Toward the end of the 1970s, Representa- Phillips, whose Conservative Caucus acted zine, as well as Phillips’ voting guides and tive Phil Crane hosted weekly meetings of as a grassroots conduit from Washington newsletters. conservative activists, including New Right to conservatives across the nation. More importantly,the New Right began figures,14 and Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt By 1977, a Newsweek article grouped the to seek out alliances with sympathetic sponsored New Right-approved “pro-fam- New Right crew in with Anita Bryant and Republicans. Some observers felt that the ily” legislation in the House.15 Phyllis Schlafly as forces that were stirring New Right intended from the beginning The New Right’s ties to the GOP up grassroots conservative action. In the to form a conservative political organiza- became manifest in 1978, when they threw article, Weyrich noted that “Conserva- tion outside of the two-party system.13 all of their resources into defeating tives have been led by an intellectual move- Such an urge would have been under- entrenched liberal Democrats in the mid- ment but not a practical movement up to standable. Phillips, for example, had earned term Congressional elections. Dolan’s now.” He and other conservatives, he his conservative bona fides by resigning National Conservative Political Action argued, were moving aggressively to correct his post as head of Nixon’s Office of Eco- Committee (NCPAC) money was fed by that deficit.11 Schlafly’s talent, in part, was nomic Opportunity when the President Viguerie’s direct mail operation. These her ability to translate conservative ideas to failed to veto Democratic social programs. funds combined with Viguerie’s and grassroots activists and motivate them to (In the 1990s, Phillips finally abandoned Phillips’ ability to communicate with grass- achieve political goals. She mobilized the GOP when he founded the U.S. Tax- roots conservative voters, as well as women from outside of the Republican payers, now Constitution, Party.) Still, the Weyrich’s and Blackwell’s organizing in Party structure while brokering a peace with New Right had too many ties to the Repub- Washington, to promote conservative the stalwart conservative women loyalists lican Party to forsake their best chance to GOP candidates. As a result, the 1978 she knew from her days as vice president overturn liberal, New Deal programs. elections brought 30 new Congressional of the National Federation of Republican Weyrich and Blackwell were long-time representatives to Washington, many of Women.12 Republican operatives, and the New Right them self-identified conservatives. (The

THE PUBLIC EYE6 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye new class included a former history pro- rights. It was the New Right who put these diverse array of interests into a conserva- fessor from Georgia with the unlikely social issues on the GOP agenda, and it was tive coalition during the 1970s. For exam- name of Newt Gingrich.) This conserva- they who brought the chief targets of these ple, foreign policy issues were very much tive victory was further cemented two policies—the Religious Right—into the on conservatives’ minds in the middle of years later by the election of former Cali- Republican coalition, thus ushering in the decade: these included the Panama fornia Governor Ronald Reagan, whom the almost thirty years of conservative domi- Canal treaties, opposition to which New Right wholeheartedly supported as a nance over American politics. Viguerie had helped organize, and the fellow traveler. fight against global communism. In a By knocking the Democratic establish- Social Conservatism recent interview, Phillips recalled that the ment on its ear, the New Right changed the nother way the New Right differed Canal, the SALT arms accord, and the tenor of politics in Washington, especially Afrom their Old Right predecessors development of a nuclear missile defense for long-suffering conservatives. Weyrich was in their recognition of the power and system (the Strategic Defense Initiative, or and his colleagues helped remind the right importance of grassroots voters and issues. “Star Wars,” program that Reagan even- wing of something that seems obvious in As Lee Edwards later recalled, “there was tually funded) were major concerns of the retrospect, but was somewhat lost at the a populist element—a very strong ele- New Right during the period.20 This for- time. As Viguerie noted a few months eign policy component helped the New before the 1978 election, Right forge alliances with neoconservative Conservatives can win. Two gener- intellectuals who eventually developed ations of defeat conditioned many The New Right electoral Reagan’s hard-line anticommunism into a 21 conservatives to accept defeat as coherent foreign policy. inevitable.... But the nearly frantic strategy—paying attention Still, foreign policy was not the chief liberal reaction to the New Right concern of the New Right. Instead, phenomenon has changed many to single issues, especially Weyrich and his colleagues aggressively conservatives’ expectations. Most sought to add so-called “social” issues to the New Right leaders have cheerful, social ones—became Republican agenda, hoping to bind related optimistic attitudes....They look for “pro-family” and socially motivated voters ways to win rather than excuses for standard operating to the Party.The social component of the losing. Your opposition isn’t super- New Right was so prominent that Virginia human. You can win.16 procedure for the GOP. Armstrong, later head of the CourtWatch program for Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, Viguerie, never one to play down his actually defined the group in terms of own role, often hinted that he and his col- their social conservatism in 1981. The leagues deserved credit for the Reagan vic- ment—that was not present in the tradi- New Right coalition, she wrote, was “a tory. He wrote in 1981 that “America is tional conservatives. The New Right was loose, voluntary coalition of groups... basically a conservative country.The poten- much more consciously populist.”18 But the united in their objective of reasserting tra- tial for conservative revolt has always been New Right was only taking advantage of a ditional Judeo-Christian principles as the there, under the most favorable condi- national trend, again inspired by the 1960s underpinning of American government tions. But those conditions have to be 22 Left, of grassroots action. A host of “single- and politics.” Writing for the journal of made.That’s where the New Right [came] issue” groups, only some of which identi- the Christian Legal Society, Armstrong in.”17 Still, while his claims might be fied as conservative, rose up across the recognized the importance of economic and overblown, it is clear in hindsight that the country to address a number of issues, foreign policy issues to the group, but New Right—at the very least—helped from taxes to abortion. The Democratic argued that moral issues were the most make the “Reagan Revolution” possible. Party’s growing identification with the lib- prominent in the 1980 election, in part But beyond their contributions to GOP eral social movements of the era made it hard because of the New Right’s efforts. Weyrich electoral victories in 1978 and 1980, two for them to be responsive to many of these in particular recognized that an expanded other key accomplishments of the crew issues, but successive Republican adminis- agenda that included such issues would not changed the nature of the Republican trations were not much help, either. The only mobilize new groups, but could help Party, and American politics, even more New Right harnessed this part of the “pop- the Republican Party retain support while dramatically. Nixon had heartily mobi- ulist revolt” after Nixon and Ford ignored the economy it was managing was mired lized racial grievances of White Ameri- 23 the needs of grassroots anti-tax and other in a severe recession. cans for the GOP; since Reagan, single issue conservatives.19 The New Right’s socially conservative conservative politics has also built on Weyrich and his colleagues organized a bent was reinforced by Reagan’s seeming appeals to social issues like abortion and gay

THE PUBLIC EYE7 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye reluctance to act on social issues at the trends. In the postwar decades, the polit- and its allies in government, as a number beginning of his Presidency. Just a few ical ties of preachers such as Billy Graham of battles over school textbooks, sex edu- months after Reagan took office, Viguerie helped remind evangelicals of the world of cation, and the ERA convinced evangeli- publicly warned that conservatives would politics, while Graham’s friend Richard cal women and men that feminists were out not back Reagan in a battle over tax cuts Nixon made early efforts to court White to dramatically restructure the American for the wealthy that would supposedly evangelicals, recognizing their importance family order.31 promote economic growth—not because to his Southern Strategy of wooing Democ- Still, despite all this political commotion, they disagreed with the President’s “supply rats to the GOP.28 The social causes that evangelicals were not well organized polit- side” tax plan, but because they had other spurred the New Right’s issue groups also ically, and nowhere near a solid conserva- priorities.24 It appeared to Viguerie that their pulled in evangelicals as they became more tive voting bloc. Many had supported chief concerns—abortion, opposition to open to political action. Abortion originally Carter in 1976 due to his avowed evan- gay rights and the Equal Rights Amend- was almost the sole concern of Catholic gelical faith and identification as “born ment, abstinence education, and other groups until the anti-abortion book and again.”The New Right, however, hoped to family issues—were starting to be pushed video production of theologian Francis claim evangelicals for its own. Weyrich from the GOP agenda.The New Right saw Schaefer and future Surgeon General C. had been eyeing them as a significant new themselves as spokesmen for pro-family Everett Koop helped bring the issue to Republican constituency, and for years groups in Washington, and accordingly evangelicals in the late 1970s.29 had tried to convince Southern preachers tried to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire. of the importance of political action. In Not all single-issue groups were happy 1977 Howard Phillips and Weyrich asso- to be incorporated in this fashion. A 1981 ciate Ed McAteer, a former toothpaste Time article suggested that some prolife The recent emergence of salesman-turned-conservative activist, trav- groups, for instance, were troubled by eled around the country visiting Christian their association with the New Right. socially conservative Sarah leaders and preachers, attempting to recruit Roman Catholic groups particularly were them to the conservative cause.32 uneasy with the new alliance; while oppos- Palin as one of the faces But by far the most famous meeting ing abortion, they opposed many other occurred in 1979, when Weyrich led a New Right positions, for instance on the of the GOP suggests that New Right delegation, including Phillips, economy.25 Thea Rossi Barron, a lobbyist McAteer, and another Weyrich associate with the Catholic National Right to Life the influence of the New and preacher, Bob Billings, to the Vir- Coalition, left the organization in the late ginia coast to recruit a well-known Bap- 1970s after it joined the New Right in try- Right constituency within tist minister to the New Right. Morton ing to block the Equal Rights Amend- Blackwell later described the genesis of the ment.The prolife movement needed both the Party is only growing. meeting: conservatives and liberals, Republicans We looked at the national politically and Democrats, to achieve its goals, Bar- and theologically conservative lead- 26 ron argued. Still other groups, however, ers, and there were a few of them, and were happy to join up, at least for a time; Another key moment was the Carter we identified the one most likely to although she later expressed regrets over the administration’s effort to rescind the tax- take the lead. We settled on Jerry Fal- move, Judie Brown’s (also largely Roman exempt status of Bob Jones University well. Paul and others went down Catholic) American Life League was a because of its racially discriminatory admis- there. And of course you know the staunch ally of Weyrich throughout the sion policy (an effort eventually upheld by story, that Paul said, “We think there’s 27 1980s. the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983). The a moral majority out there,” and Besides incorporating single-issue Internal Revenue Service also pursued Falwell said, “I like that name.” Paul groups into the Republican coalition, the Goldsboro Christian School, which was asked, “What name?” And Falwell other key innovation of the New Right was founded in 1963 with the idea that the mix- said, “‘Moral Majority’—that’s the its targeting of Christian evangelicals, who ing of races violated God’s plan. These name we’ll use.”33 had been relatively quiescent since the battles helped trigger a revolt among White Scopes trial early in the 20th century. Still, Southern evangelicals who maintained The rest is history: the Moral Majority, there had been signs of a political awak- separate religious schools that were func- McAteer’s own group, the Religious ening among evangelicals as early as the tionally exclusionary even when technically Roundtable, and other religious associa- 1950s, and the New Right again was able open to all races.30 Equally importantly, tions helped deliver the evangelical vote to to take advantage of existing political evangelicals were enraged by feminism Reagan and the GOP. Racially inflected social conservatism became a major com-

THE PUBLIC EYE8 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye ponent of the Republican coalition, pro- pelling conservative Presidential and Con- gressional candidates to victory in subsequent decades, and ensuring a sharp right turn in American policymaking.The New Right electoral strategy—paying

attention to single issues, especially social Adam Zyglis/politicalcartoons.com ones—became standard operating proce- dure for the GOP.

Aftermath and Legacy ne of the reasons why the New Right Ois so poorly understood today is that the cofounders fell into obscurity shortly after the Reagan victory. By the end of the 1980s, the leadership group had gone their separate ways; no longer a factor in Repub- lican Party politics, they were eclipsed by their creation, the Religious Right. Their decline was partially a result of individual idiosyncrasies. None of these characteristics were more ironic than Terry Dolan’s, as revealed when he died of AIDS in 1986; the fundraiser and PAC organizer who had one of the Republican Party’s most vocal thinking here of Morton Blackwell, who played a direct role in bringing antigay critics on the Right. In response to a 2006 joined the Reagan Administration as a issues onto the Republican agenda was Viguerie op-ed critical of then-President liaison to conservative groups like the New himself a closeted homosexual. Less dra- Bush, conservative columnist Bob Novak Right’s Conservative Caucus and Moral matic, but no less final, was Howard Phillips’ carped that “Reagan had been president Majority. And even as this particular New eventual break with the Republican Party. only seven days when Viguerie compared Right grouping fell by the wayside, Black- Phillips later referred to the early 1980s as him to Jimmy Carter, based on his Cabi- well and especially Weyrich remained “the first of Bush’s three terms” due to the net selections.”37 Novak should have done plugged in to conservative and Republican prominent role of moderates like James some more research; according to the Wash- networks, and new groups carried the Baker in the early Reagan administration,34 ington Post, Viguerie and Dolan were com- work forward creating grassroots pressure and used his Taxpayers Party to make his plaining even earlier—barely two weeks in the GOP.Weyrich created still more con- own failed bid for the Presidency in 1996.35 after Reagan’s election.38 Viguerie actually servative organizations, including the semi- But the seeds of the New Right’s decline foresaw his problematic relationship with secretive umbrella group, the Council on may have had a more structural origin. the GOP even before the 1980 election. In National Policy, which Blackwell headed Without liberals in government to attack a Washington Post article from October of for most of the 1990s. As of this writing, and defeat, what was the point of the New that year, he warned that conservatives Blackwell continues to run the Leadership Right? As Lee Edwards later observed, would likely be stronger if Carter won the Institute, a Washington-based training election: “The New Right couldn’t get program for conservative student activists They were more a political move- together when someone whom we per- and political operatives. And Weyrich’s ment than a philosophical move- ceived to be one of ours—like Nixon or weekly coalition meetings of various ment. Their goal was to elect Ford—was in office.”39 activists were almost mandatory for Wash- conservatives to the House and Sen- Some twenty-five years after Reagan’s ington conservatives up until his death ate.They did that in 1978, and then victory, Weyrich took a less belligerent last year.41 Similar leaders may yet emerge. again in 1980.They knocked off 10 approach to the fading of the New Right, While the New Right’s Moral Majority or 12 prominent liberal Senators. seeing it as a necessary outgrowth of polit- was relatively short-lived, lasting only until You elect Reagan in 1980. You’ve ical success. “It is axiomatic,” he noted, “that 1989, it soon gave way to Pat Robertson’s achieved your goals: now what’s your when an administration comes into power, Christian Coalition, today’s Family raison d’etre? So they become a critic.36 it is going to absorb many of the people who Research Council, and other Christian Indeed, Richard Viguerie has become brought it to power.”40 He may have been political groups, as well as the GOP’s

THE PUBLIC EYE9 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye decades-long habit of at least paying lip End Notes 26 Jon Margolis, “Should it be Called ‘Life for the Right?’”, service to social conservatism (while mostly 1 A Newsweek article in 1981 included author George Chicago Tribune, 1979. Gilder, whose arguments against feminism and welfare 27 Judie Brown interview with author. advancing their economic agenda). And the were influential in conservative circles. But Gilder had 28 William Martin, With God On Our Side: The Rise of the little if any actual contact with New Right activists, alliance has even paid some dividends on Religious Right in America (New York: Broadway 1996), operating more as an independent public intellectual. See p. 99. social policy issues; social conservatives “Who’s Who on the Right,” Newsweek,February2, may be unhappy about progress on over- 1981. 29 Richard Land, “Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop’s Invaluable Impact on Pro-Life Evangelicalism,” National 2 Phyllis Schlafly interview with the author, November 21, turning Roe v.Wade, but they have the “par- Right to Life News, January 2003. 2006. tial birth” ban, the Hyde Amendment, 30 When the U.S. Supreme Court found against Bob 3 Morton Blackwell interview with the author, December and restrictions on international family Jones, it also found against Goldsboro Christian School 13, 2006. planning (although the “global gag rule” has in a companion case. Also see Randall Balmer, Thy King- 4 E.J. Dionne, Jr, “Spotlight: The Mail-Order Cam- dom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and been repealed under Democratic admin- paigners,” New York Times, September 7, 1980. Threatens America (New York: Basic, 2006) chapter 1. istrations, including Obama’s). Plus evan- 5 Booknotes, interview with Richard Viguerie; broadcast Sep- 31 See Richard J. Meagher, “Backlash: Race, Sexuality, and gelical and other groups have brought tember 5, 2004 (transcript available at American Conservatism,” Polity (April 2009), pp. 256– http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1796 266. onto their own agenda some of the eco- , accessed March 15, 2009). 32 Phillips interview with author. 6 nomic issues dear to Republicans, includ- Blackwell interview with author. 33 42 Blackwell interview with author. ing tax cuts and social security reform. 7 Gillian Peele, Revival and Reaction: The Right in Con- 34 Craige McMillan, “The Last Honorable Politician?”, temporary America (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), p. 54. Before the New Right brought social issues WorldNetDaily, October 29, 1998 (available at into Republican politics, traditionalists 8 Blackwell interview with author. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp? were much more wary of trying to seize gov- 9 Richard A.Viguerie,The New Right: We’re Ready to Lead, ARTICLE_ID=19259, accessed March 15, 2009). revised ed., (Falls Church, VA: The Viguerie Company, 35 Weyrich described his friend in this way: “The problem ernmental power. By arguing for political 1981). with Howard, and I love him dearly, is that he is one of action on issues like abortion, school prayer, 10 Richard Viguerie, “The New Right: A Definition,”The those people who believes in the perfect; and, in that sense, New Right Report, April 28, 1978. defeats the good. And we cannot have perfection on this and creationism, the New Right helped earth” (interview with author). 11 make activist traditionalism a reality.The Richard Boeth, Michael J. Sniffen, James Doyle, and 36 Elaine Sciolino, “The New Activists,” Newsweek, Interview with author. New Right’s influence helped mold the November 7, 1977. 37 Robert Novak, “Arnold’s No-New-Taxes Pledge in Jeop- GOP in other ways. The influx of Chris- 12 Abby Scher, “Book Review: Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots ardy,” Human Events, May 27, 2006 (available at tian conservatives helped drive moderates Conservatism: AWoman’s Crusade,” Public Eye, Summer http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15188, accessed March 15, 2009). out of the party; prochoice feminists, for 2006. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v20n2/ scher_review.html 38 Nicholas Lemann, “The New Right: Apprehensions example, were still part of the GOP’s “big 13 Veteran political operative Bill Rusher attempted to About Reagan’s Supporting Cast,” Washington Post, tent” during the 1990s, but were eventu- build such a third party in a failed effort to entice Rea- November 19, 1980. ally pushed out or silenced.43 gan to run against Ford in 1976; see William A. Rusher, 39 Marjorie Hyer, “Viguerie Sets a Deadline for the New The Making of the New Majority Party (New York: Sheed Right,” Washington Post, October 24, 1980. The Christian Right is now firmly and Ward, 1975). 40 Weyrich interview with author. entrenched in the GOP coalition, and we 14 “The New Right Network: ‘For a Broader Constituency,’” 41 Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, andTomDelay worked out Washington Post, January 29, 1978. have the New Right to thank. The recent the details of what would become the Contract for emergence of socially conservative Sarah 15 Leslie Bennetts, “Conservatives Join on Social Concerns,” America at Weyrich’s “Conservative Opportunity Lunch- Palin as one of the faces of the GOP sug- New York Times, July 30, 1980. eons” in the 1980s; see Susanna Monroney, “Laying the 16 Viguerie, 1978. Right Foundations,” Rutherford, December 1995. gests that the influence of the New Right 42 17 Viguerie, 1981. Richard J. Meagher. “Tax Revolt as a Family Value: How constituency within the Party is only grow- the Christian Right Is Becoming a Free Market Cham- 18 Lee Edwards interview with author, November 28, pion,” Public Eye, Winter 2006. ing. Even as prospects for electoral success 2006. 43 Tanya Melich, The Republican War Against Women: An seem uncertain at best, the New Right’s 19 Robert Muccigrosso, Basic History of American Conser- Insider’s Report from Behind the Lines (New York: Ban- hold on GOP politics seems secure. The vatism (Malabar, Florida: Krieger, 2001). tam, 1996). danger for Republicans is that with the New 20 Howard Phillips interview with the author, October 2, Right leaders gone or marginalized, no 2006. 21 See Greg Grandin, Empire’sWorkshop: Latin America, the one may be left to remind the GOP that United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism (New more is needed than simply anger and York: Metropolitan, 2006); Jerome L. Himmelstein,To issues; instead, strategy and political savvy the Right:TheTransformationof American Conservatism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). will carry the day. Are a new generation of 22 Virginia Armstrong, “In Defense of the ‘New Right,’” leaders—a “new New Right”—ready to Christian Legal Society Quarterly 3, no. 1&2 (1981). Visit Right Web for profiles of the individuals take the lead? So far, no one has stepped 23 Peele, p. 71. and organizations promoting a militarist U.S. ■ 24 forward, but only time will tell. Richard J.Cattani, “GOP Right Posts Watchon Reagan foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. Orthodoxy,” Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 1981. http://rightweb.irc-online.org 25 Walter Isaacson, “The Battle Over Abortion,” Time, April 6, 1981.

THE PUBLIC EYE10 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye MOVEMENTS TO MOSQUES continued from page 1 The news that Monteilh not only infil- behind the plot. Despite paying informants people wonder if any of their colleagues are trated the Irvine mosque but mosques over $130,000, the FBI produced no evi- spies. Their handlers’ structure of incen- across Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles dence of explosives, weapons or blueprints, tives—raises, promotions, transfers, finan- counties came out during a bail hearing for only a videotape of defendants pledging an cial rewards, waived jail time—creates a Ahmadullah Niazi.1 Niazi, an Afghan "oath" to al Qaeda, recorded in a warehouse system where informants consciously or native and U.S. citizen, was up on charges wired by the FBI.The defendants are peti- subconsciously create and then destroy ter- that he had lied about ties to terrorist tioning for a new trial. rorist threats that would not otherwise groups on immigration applications, Since the government’s use of secret exist.These pressures can push them from because he did not disclose that his brother- informants is increasingly visible, in passive observer to aggressive actor, with in-law was Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, mosques and in an array of activist net- serious consequences for constitutionally and that he traveled to Pakistan in 2005 works, so too are questions about whether protected free speech. Another unplanned where he allegedly met with a terrorist. the spies instigated events and infringed on result: government loses legitimacy and Posing as a new convert, Monteilh people’s constitutionally protected rights support in the eyes of targeted communi- arrived at the Irvine Islamic Center in to free speech, association, and privacy. ties, if they feel they have been manipulated. 2006 wearing robes and a long beard, In a dozen or so cases exposed within the Today’s informants carry the same dis- using the name Farouk Aziz. Monteilh last few years, informants facilitated bomb- ruptive potential as their counterparts in had a long rap sheet and had served 16 the FBI’s 1960s-era counterintelligence months in state prison on two grand-theft program (COINTELPRO), which aimed charges. But he found new friends in gov- “to expose, disrupt, and otherwise neu- ernment in his new role. FBI Special Agent Informants don’t tralize the New Left organizations, their Thomas J. Ropel III testified that Monteilh leadership and adherents.”3 Today’s agents recorded Niazi on multiple occasions, talk- just observe and are shrugging off constraints placed on ing about blowing up buildings, sending them in 1976, after the program’s illegal money to the mujahedeen, and acquiring collect data. They make break-ins, assassinations, and dirty tricks weapons, although the government has against civil rights, antiwar and other not charged Niazi with terrorism. Niazi is things happen. activists were exposed. Following high- said to have refused to become an FBI profile investigations, Congress limited informant after he complained to the the Bureau to investigating activists they agency about Monteilh.2 making, provided logistical support, cajoled believed were about to be, or were actually We don’t yet know if Monteilh’s talk of others with provocative language, and engaged in, criminal activity.4 jihad egged Niazi on. Was he an agent goaded people to break the law. Not every But in the post-9/11 environment, provocateur, like the two well-paid FBI informant can be blamed for provoking ille- intelligence gathering is driven by a theory informants in the 2006 SearsTower terror gal activity, and entrapment is a difficult of preventive policing: in order to antici- plot, supposedly concocted by men from thing to prove. Targets of surveillance do pate the next terror attack, authorities Miami’s deeply impoverished and pre- often plan or commit crimes: witness the need to track legal activities – much like the dominantly black Liberty City neighbor- five men sentenced to life terms in April “pre-crime” units depicted in the film hood? After two hung juries, in May a third 2009 for their role in plotting an armed Minority Report. Pre-emptive policing jury finally convicted five out of the six assault on Fort Dix in New Jersey.Yet, even dovetails with a police-promoted belief defendants for planning to blow up the in that case, informants played key roles in that “radicalization” is a key cause of vio- Chicago landmark. The New York Times planning those crimes. lent extremism.5 quoted a law professor as saying, “It goes By and large, evidence shows informants This emphasis on prevention and rad- to show that if you try it enough times, do not merely observe and collect data. icalization blurs the distinction between you’ll eventually find a jury that will con- They make things happen. Their mere thought and action by specifying ideolog- vict on very little evidence.” Previous juries presence creates distrust and conflict, mak- ical orientation as grounds for suspicion. viewed the FBI informant posing as a ing them an efficient tool of repression that It justifies investigating anyone or any member of al Qaeda as the driving force in recent years has affected broad, pre- group identified as fostering “subversive” dominantly Muslim communities in the ideas. It focuses not on crime, but on the Thomas Cincotta is civil liberties program United States, as well as left-wing activists. possibility that a crime might be commit- director of Political Research Associates and Informants can cause confusion and dis- ted at some future date. This entire amemberofthePublic Eye editorial board. satisfaction among members of groups approach conflicts with the democratic His blog, Liberty Beat, tracking repression and communities they infiltrate, discred- notion—enshrined in the Constitution can be read at www.publiceye.org. iting leaders, and fostering factionalism as and numerous Supreme Court decisions—

THE PUBLIC EYE11 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye that government may not inquire into or effort to “shut the city down.” The trial is plete with a fake Facebook page under the restrict thought and speech. expected to begin in September 2009.6 But alias “Amanda,” Nieting did not gain the Attorney General Eric Holder has not activists and civil libertarians have already same level of acceptance from the anarchists stated whether he will revisit lax Bush-era learned about tactics that cause grave con- as Hedstrom had, and dropped out. Hed- guidelines (see box). Despite the avail- cern about the protection of free speech strom covered for “Amanda,” explaining ability of alternative, less constitutionally rights. that she found a new boyfriend. “iffy” investigative techniques, the use of The spies filed about a thousand pages In their various roles, undercover agents informants appears to remain a favorite tac- of reports for an investigation that cost can seriously distort the life of a social tic—not only of the FBI, but, as we know $300,000 to the county alone.7 The sher- movement, as sociologist Gary Marx has from 2008’s political conventions, local iff’s three undercover operatives are notable argued.9 Hedstrom and Nieting’s partici- police as well. for their diversity: a female narcotics offi- pation made the organization seem larger cer in her 50s, a 20-something female jail and more inclusive. Nieting wrote that Agents Provocateurs at the RNC guard, and a headstrong muscular guy she and Hedstrom were the only two ew civil liberties advocates were sur- looking to be pushing 30. women to join Karen Redleaf at a women’s Fprised when they learned police had Marilyn Hedstrom, the narcotics offi- caucus. Redleaf, a committee member, deployed informants before and during cer, introduced herself to anarchists as talked about how disconnected she felt and the 2008 Republican National Convention “Norma Jean Johnson” in August, 2007, said was only coming to Sunday meetings in St. Paul, Minnesota. Both the FBI and telling activists she had issues with Bush and because “Norma Jean” was there.10 the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department the Iraq war.8 She cooked meals, ran The third informant, Chris Dugger, dispatched informants to spy on protest errands, worked the security detail, and rep- hadtattoosandresembledabiker.He organizations. Their efforts eventually led resented the organization at gatherings. Her portrayed himself as participating in a rad- to the arrest of eight activists prior to the reports show no talk of property damage ical movement for the first time. Still, he convention on charges of conspiring to or even protests at meetings she attended, was accused by another member of being commit illegal acts. While the county pros- but much discussion of internal strains, a cop. Denying the charge that he was an ecutor dropped terrorism charges against gripes, and names of activists. informer, Dugger became visibly emo- them in early April, the RNC 8 still face Informant Rachel Nieting, a guard in the tional, wiping his eyes, blowing his nose, felony conspiracy charges that they pro- county jail, accompanied Hedstrom pos- and telling the group how bad he felt. He moted riot and property destruction in an ing as her niece, but did not fit in. Com- must have been convincing, since two of the anarchists later told him “a cop would have just walked away and never returned CHANGES IN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT and wouldn’t cry.” GUIDELINES NEEDED By August, 2008, Dugger reportedly urged one anarchist to suspect another of Today many of the abuses of COINTELPRO are no longer illegal. Break-ins, wiretaps, and mail covers have been supplanted by national security letters and “sneak and peak” searches, being an informer. This highly disruptive authorized under the USA Patriot Act enacted after 9/11. The danger of these intrusions to practice, known as “snitch-jacketing,” was privacy and free speech is magnified by the expansion of the domestic security apparatus. a common tactic of COINTELPRO The fruits of surveillance can flow rapidly through 70 state intelligence fusion centers, chan- operatives. Snitch-jacketing not only stirs neling information across jurisdictions from local police to national security agencies. distrust, but can also provoke violence. For his efforts, Dugger’s handlers won him a job The election of Barack Obama does not portend a sea change in domestic intelligence policy. There are no signs that his administration is rolling back definitions of terrorism in the county jail. stretched to encompass acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.39 FBI Director Mueller, The FBI’s informant, Andrew Darst, who serves a ten-year term, worked with former Attorney General Mukasey to issue new infiltrated the “action faction” having been Guidelines for Domestic Operations in 2008 that: first seen in anarchist circles three years before. He became active in committee • Authorize agents to attend meetings of a religious or political nature without any meetings of the RNC Welcoming Com- suspicion of criminal or terrorist activity; mittee and reported on events held by • Decrease internal supervision and coordination at various stages of investigation; other, nonanarchist organizations. Not • Expand the scope and duration of preliminary inquiries that turn up nothing; only did he record meetings, his apartment • Permit agents to misrepresent themselves and conduct “pretext interviews” to in Minneapolis was wired for audio and elicit information; and video recording.11 In March, 2009, Darst pled guilty to two counts of misdemeanor • Encourage the use of more intrusive techniques with no sense of prioritization.40 assault and one count of property damage

THE PUBLIC EYE12 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye after breaking into a house by ripping the door off its hinges, confronting his wife, and striking two men present. But this Minnesota-based spy was not the only person the FBI deployed to track people planning to protest the RNC.The example of Brandon Darby,a magnetic, dis- contented Texas activist, reveals how eas- ily the fuzzy line between informer and instigator can be crossed.

The Darby Case or eighteen months before the 2008 FRNC, the FBI paid more than $11,000 to Darby, a gun-toting, outspoken Texas radical, to spy on fellow activists in Austin and then St. Paul. Darby was a charismatic John Trever/politicalcartoons.com leader with a reputation for defying author- ity who infiltrated the Austin Affinity Group for the FBI after becoming dis- gruntled with anarchist tactics. Government infiltration by a respected leader, handled by an FBI agent untrained in handling HurricaneKatrina,hetookanAK-47and to evaluate the potential informer’s moti- informants, presented the perfect setting for a handgun to New Orleans to help rescue vation, dangerousness, and the extent to an agent provocateur to thrive. an old friend in a neighborhood inun- which the FBI can ensure that the infor- Darby’s deep involvement illustrates dated by muddy water and White militias. mation gathered is related to criminal mat- the pressures inherent in the informant’s He was a leader of the Common Ground ters. The guidelines do not address the role. Informants must choose between relief effort in New Orleans and a member potential for provocation per se, but FBI being passive observers who yield sparse of the Austin activist community for more Agent Timothy Sellers said he cautioned information and wield little influence, or Darby not to take a leading role.12 more active participants who produce bet- Sellers charged Darby with spying on a ter information, but also affect what hap- range of Austin-area activists, particularly pens more directly—raising the risk of The government the Austin Affinity Group.13 Darby gath- possible complicity and entrapment. ered information on a number of people On the eve of the convention, two loses support among engaged in lawful activism, including some activists under Darby’s surveillance, 22-year who had no plans to attend the Republi- old David McKay and 23-year-old Bradley targeted communities if can Convention. He described meetings Crowder, concocted eight Molotov cock- with his affinity group and people in tails and stored them in a basement. Crow- they feel they have been Austin, Minneapolis, and St. Paul for the der pled guilty in the fall of 2008, but FBI. At times he wore recording devices, McKay’s case went to trial. The jury split manipulated by the use including a transmitter embedded in his evenly on the issue of whether Darby, the belt. Four months before the RNC, he went elder turncoat, had entrapped him. McKay of secret informants. to Minnesota and provided detailed nar- eventually pled guilty before his second trial ratives to authorities on meetings with began, saying he would have made the activists from New York, San Francisco, Molotov cocktails even without Darby’s than ten years. Friends in New Orleans say Montana, and elsewhere.14 encouragement. But the question remains: he openly supported the use of firebomb- “The wider net cast by Darby in his Were the two men egged on by the charis- ing as a tactic. information gathering shows that he was matic Darby? Given the need for informants to part of an FBI campaign to suppress polit- Darby was a self-identified revolution- observe rather than lead, it is curious that ical dissent and activism,” said Will Potter, ary who slept with a gun under his pillow, the FBI found someone like Darby suitable a journalist with the alternative press. “By according to friends. In the aftermath of for the task. Guidelines require the Bureau gathering information on law-abiding

THE PUBLIC EYE13 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye activists and then defending his actions as McKay and Crowder, he said, “I’m going Although Darby wore a wire to trans- stopping violence, Darby contributes to the to shut this f..ker down” and “any group I mit his conversation with McKay about the public perception that political dissent is go with will be successful.” Darby lam- Molotov cocktails, FBI agents took notes criminal, which has a chilling effect on free basted the two for looking like a bunch of but made no recording. This raised suspi- speech.”15 “tofu-eaters” who needed to “start eating cion among jurors that Darby had crossed Sociologist Gary T. Marx’s study of meat and bulk up” so they could fight.20 In the line from surveillance to provocation. agents provocateurs and informants sug- fact, he trained them in martial arts. gests that the nature of informing may lead There was no reason for Darby to tone Informers and MuslimAmericans the informer beyond his or her assigned down his rhetoric as an informant, although nformers generate suspicion deep into the task, particularly when the motivation is Icommunities under surveillance. “What personal or ideological. In his study, Marx these guys have done is create an environ- identifies the potential motives of inform- ment where every person begins to suspect ants, including patriotism, coercion, finan- Disgruntled informants the other and with the infighting and cial reward, disaffection with activists, inward suspicion, the community becomes double agents who want to assist the move- tend to exaggerate or its own victim,” said Shakeel Syed, execu- ment, converts who lose their zeal, and tive director of the Islamic Shura Council provocateurs who find success in the role even lie, producing poor in southern California. by exceeding their mandate.16 Across the country in New Jersey, two After returning from a trip to Venezuela, information. FBI informers helped lead the five Duka Darby said, he began to see major problems brothers down a similar path, ending with with “violent elements” of the movement their sentencing on April 28, 2009 for and actions being planned by the RNC such language could inspire illegal action conspiracy to commit terrorism.22 Author- Welcoming Committee. Explaining his by younger colleagues. The informant’s ities opened the Fort Dix file in 2006 after motivation to work for the FBI, he said he secret status frees him or her from the con- a Circuit City clerk showed police a video merely wanted to protect the Republi- straints with which more prudent activists the brothers asked him to convert to DVD. cans’ right to participate in the political contend. Just as Monteilh championed process. violent jihad, Darby could express militancy Ideological motives may produce poor without fear of reprisal. As Frank Donner information, says Marx. Disgruntled observed, “the infiltrator’s secret knowledge WHO IS ANNA? informants tend to exaggerate or even lie: that he alone in the group is immune from “Anna” was an FBI informant for two “There is no limit to which people will go accountability for his acts dissolves all years, who came to activists’ attention at to get even for a real or imagined wrong.”17 restraints on his zeal.”21 a Fort Lauderdale protest of the Organi- Darby shared his employers’ assumptions One of Darby’s big moments came after zation of American States (OAS) meet- that anarchists were determined to use the FBI seized shields that the affinity ing in June, 2005. Ray Del Papa watched violence. “Such agents may thus feel free group made to use in blocking streets dur- her, dressed as a medic with a red cross to encourage activists to take violent action ing the Republican Convention. Darby on her shirt and bag, directing young people to sit down in the street directly or to report false information. They may told McKay, “We’re not going to take this in front of a line of police in riot gear, feel that the group poses such a severe lying down. You’ve got to do something using provocative language even though threat that any means (even lying to supe- about it.” The next night, McKay and organizers had decided against sit-ins.41 riors) are necessary to destroy it,” warns Crowder bought materials for Molotov They had not counted on an informer in Marx.18 cocktails. Darby claims that he urged their midst. Anna went on to sleep with a The FBI did not require Darby to shed restraint. When McKay considered hurl- young anarchist who was eventually his revolutionary fervor. Militant language ing the Molotov cocktails at police cars given a prison sentence of 19 years and and a reckless temperament remained part parked at a station, Darby texted him, seven months for conspiring to sabotage of his public persona. According to Lisa “It’s your call. I support you making what- a U.S. Forest Service genetics tree lab and nearby fish hatchery in Rancho Cordova, Fithian, who worked with Darby for a ever choice you are comfortable with. Be California. Juror statements that they felt number of years, “Brandon was always proud of yourself for your work and take unfairly hemmed in by the judge’s provoking discord and aggression, in the a chill.” When McKay suggested that there instructions on whether the anarchist, antiwar movement in Austin in 2003, in weretoomanypolicearound,Darby Eric McDavid, was “predisposed” to protests in Houston against Halliburton, texted, “it’s all good, sometimes it’s best to commit the crime before meeting the and in disaster relief at Common Ground fight another day … —it’s ok, I’ll support informant; that now forms some of the in New Orleans.”19 At his first meeting with you.” basis of his appeal.42

THE PUBLIC EYE14 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye

On the video, camouflaged, bearded men of Fort Dix. Tatar eventually did—but Ever since 9/11, national, state and shot semi-automatic weapons at a shoot- not before he called Philadelphia police to local authorities have tried with enor- ing range in the Poconos, where the defen- report being pressured for the map and mous resources to find, prosecute, dants played paintball, skied, rode horses, voiced concern that it could be terror and punish Muslim terrorists inside and played videogames with their male related.24 the United States. The result has buddies. On tape, the men shouted “Allahu Without the FBI’s agents provocateurs, been an increasingly embarrassing Akbar,” meaning “God is Great.” Think- there might never have been a plot or string of trumped-up charges that ing the weapons were automatic, the clerk weapons. Transcripts record some defen- trigger much War onTerror warrior phoned police. In the eyes of the FBI, dants explicitly rejecting violence. In a chest-pounding, and screaming, ter- these were gun fanatics taping a training conversation recorded in April, 2007, Dri- rifying headlines for weeks following video or training for jihad. Had they not tan Duka rebuffed Bakalli’s appeals for the arrests and indictments. Then, been Albanian Americans, the shooters’ violent action. “We are good the way we months or even years later, when bravado might not have raised suspicion. are,” he tells him. “We are not going to kill evidence is put before juries and the But in the post-9/11 world, the video anyone. Even if we kill anyone, you can’t public, we find that the real “perpe- offered cause for investigation.23 run away.They will catch you right away.” trators” were the paid government Rather than interview the brothers, or informants, seeking profit by incit- merely monitor them—investigative ing and enabling cheap talk and any options that seem old hat in the informer acts they can produce by gullible, age—the FBI dispatched two untrained Informants can emotional and foolish suckers.27 civilians to ingratiate themselves with the men in the video.The first informer, Mah- promote militancy The Impact on Mosques moud Omar, was a convicted felon who or Movements entered the United States illegally in 1992 without fear of reprisal hether in a mosque or a movement and faced fraud charges.The FBI told him Worganization, informants achieve they would clear his debts and help him from the government. the same results: demoralization, helpless- obtain legal residence, and paid him ness, cynicism, and immobilizing para- $238,000 for his undercover work.The sec- noia. After Brandon Darby admitted spying ond informant, Besnik Bakalli, received on his friends, Lisa Fithian told Democracy $13,000 from the FBI, immigration assis- But this did not deter the informers. At Now, “We feel traumatized. We feel as if tance, and pardon for an old shooting some points, the defendants seemed too somebody that we thought actually had charge from Albania. scared to do anything. When they were sup- good intentions and cared for this com- Informant Omar was the apparent posedly shopping for weapons, one defen- munity has been a lie.” Conventional inva- leader of any plot against Fort Dix. He dant worried that “as Muslims, if we get sions of privacy are alienating and even organized “reconnaissance missions” in caught, we all get sent away to f...ing Guan- dehumanizing. But government surveil- which he drove Mohamed Shnewer around tanamo Bay for ten years with no court lance goes further, tampering with the very 25 potential targets while he railed against the date.” Nevertheless, several defendants group dynamics through which political United States. Omar stoked Shnewer’s were caught on tape talking callously about change is brought about.28 fire, although he claimed during the trial killing as many soldiers as they could in a According to a recent study by sociol- that he was just trying to fit in. But Shnewer fantastic assault on the Fort. FBI arrested ogists Amory Starr and Luis Fernandez, took the bait. On August 1, Shnewer told the six after the Duka brothers bought government surveillance causes activists and Omar, “If you want to do anything here, seven high-powered rifles in a deal set up citizens to fear participation in completely there is Fort Dix and I don’t want to exag- by Omar. legal events and to be reluctant to donate gerate, and I assure you that you can hit an “Many in the Muslim community will to organizations, sign petitions, and receive American base very easily…When you go see this as a case of entrapment,” said Jim newsletters. Civic participation is cut back. to a military base, you need mortars and Sues, executive director of the New Jersey Allies such as churches will abandon groups RPGs.” Omar offered to turn such fantasies chapter of the Council on American- under surveillance. Perceiving an increase to reality, promising to introduce his com- Islamic Relations (CAIR), who attended in government repression, some activists rades to an arms dealer and giving them a the trial. “From what I saw, there was a sig- quit entirely. Those who remain active list of weapons he could procure. nificant role played by the government find an organizing culture that was once 26 The recordings stretched out over a informant.” Dr. Ian Lustick, political open is replaced with a “security culture,” month, during which Omar badgered science professor at the University of Penn- complete with reduced discussion, less defendant Serdar Tatar to get him a map sylvania, notes that, note-taking (since it makes people look

THE PUBLIC EYE15 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye suspicious), and more secretive planning. The same is true for Muslim commu- religion, Arabs and Muslims will be less A broad perception is created that activists’ nities—it is harder to organize if you are likely to cooperate with authorities and pro- political work is marginal, criminal, or wary about others.Through the reckless use vided needed information.”35 CAIR, the suspicious.29 of informants, the government has actively largest Muslim group in the country, had Inevitably, surveillance and even the cultivated distrust in both activist and tar- played an important role as liaison between fear of surveillance on the part of those not geted populations. “It gives you a little bit the agency and Muslim communities. actually monitored produce a pervasive self- of apprehension about who you trust,” said censorship. One activist described the OmarTurbi of the Islamic Center of Irvine. Do Informants Make effect: “I had to learn not to welcome peo- “Makes you think twice about what you People Violent? ple and not give out information . . . I’m say; what if people misunderstand you?” team of behavioral scientists paid by interested in community building, and Hussam Ayloush, Executive Director of Athe U.S. Department of Homeland then you’re taught to be suspicious and not CAIR in Anaheim, added, “Some average Security is studying what turns radicals into welcome people; it’s antithetical to your the- Muslims interested only in praying are violent extremists. But what about the ory of change.”30 avoiding mosques for fear of somehow influence of highly motivated informants? When a person’s politics come under Paid informants are highly intrusive, hostile investigation by a secret police unit aggressive, and potentially provocative. in a country like the United States that The ability of informants to neutralize boasts of its freedom, it is traumatic, to say Today many of the abuses democratic change and disrupt commu- the least.The undercover character of the nities should raise concerns about whether investigation, the assumed guilt of the of COINTELPRO are pre-emptive policing is worth its social and person, the denial of an opportunity to political costs. As civil rights lawyer Frank answer any charges and confront the no longer illegal. Donner said, sizing up the surveillance accuser, can all be shattering. People are through the 1970s, “under the warrant of made even more vulnerable by the secrecy protecting the democratic process from dis- of the probe and the knowledge that gov- ruption and violence, the intelligence state ernment may maintain a file on them for being monitored or profiled. Everybody is is seriously jeopardizing it.”36 the rest of their lives.31 The hallmarks of a afraid, and it is leading to an infringe- When Maryland activists learned that security culture are exclusion, wariness, ment on the free practice of our religion.”33 a state trooper infiltrated dozens of social withholding information, and avoiding Not only is freedom of religion being justice groups over a fourteen-month diversity. As Starr and Fernandez report: chilled, but the government’s use of inform- period, they banded together with the “It’s hard to build when you’re suspicious.”32 ants is alienating Muslim Americans. As ACLU and Defending Dissent Foundation recently as this spring, allegations of wide- to urge passage of a state oversight bill.37 spread infiltration of mosques led several Social justice groups, including animal INTERNS WANTED! Muslim and Arab civil rights and com- rights and environmental activists, must munity organizations to call for ending ties strengthen ties with Muslim, Arab, Mid- The Public Eye with law enforcement.34 David Cole notes dle Eastern, South Asian, and immigrant The Public Eye welcomes interns that “when law enforcement and intelli- groups facing infiltration to demand con- to join us in producing the only gence officials treat a wide cross-section of straints on how and when informants may magazine dedicated to exposing the Arab and Muslim community as sus- be used to spy on Americans. Demands the U.S. Right. pect largely by virtue of their ethnicity or should include the use of less intrusive means of surveillance when a crime is sus- Political Research Associates pected; independent oversight to ensure Political Research Associates, Common Sense Security better supervision and training related to the parent think tank of The Political dissidents and groups seen as the use of informants for legitimate law Public Eye, offers a research “internal enemies”have always faced enforcement purposes; and a ban on com- internship, and a communica- government repression. It is important piling dossiers on individuals and groups tion and development internship. to take these attacks seriously and object to them. At the same time it is impor- based solely upon their political, social or To apply, just email a letter and tant not to allow fearmongers to scare religious activities and beliefs. At a mini- you away from civic and religious life. resume identifying the internship mum, progressives must insist on re-estab- Visit http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/ lishing the protections instituted after the that interests you to security/activists.html for useful tip [email protected]. sheets created over the years. disastrous COINTELPRO programs, requiring suspicion of criminal activity as

THE PUBLIC EYE16 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye a threshold for government spying. 10 Marx, p. 428. “Specious activists may help perpetuate a 30 Starr, et.al. protest group by offering the kinds of resources and moral 31 Donner, p. 6. These are all in the best interests of the support that are often in short supply among those who government, not just its citizens. In the take highly unpopular positions and engage in illegal 32 Starr and Fernandez, p. 15. long run, the government risks losing actions. Because of their need to be accepted, agents often 33 Teresa Watanabeand Paloma Esquivel, “L.A. area Mus- work very hard, are often very successfully at gaining new lims say FBI surveillance has a chilling effect,” Los Ange- crucial support and legitimacy when its recruits for the movement, and even at starting new les Times, March 1, 2009. branches of a movement.” investigative tactics even appear to cross 34 11 Samantha Henry, “Some Muslims Rethink Close Ties the line into provocation and unlawful Revolution, “Political Persecution of the RNC 8: Part 2 with Law Enforcement,” Associated Press, May 4, 2009. Informants and Undercover Agents,” March 11, 2009, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090504/ap_on_re_us/us_mus investigation of protected First Amend- posted at: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems; Randy lims_law_enforcement Furst, “RNC Informant Found Guilty in Minnestrista ment activities. 35 Assault,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 23, 2009. David Cole, Enemy Aliens (New York: New Press: 2003), Candidate Obama explicitly invited p. 183. 12 FBI Confidential Informant Guidelines, § II.A.1. A 36 Americans to mobilize as a counterweight September 2005 Special Report of the Office of the Donner, p. xv. to the “undue influence of the lobbyists” Inspector General (OIG) found one or more Guidelines 37 Lisa Rein and Josh White, “More GroupsThanThought who “stand in our way.”38 “I‘m asking you deficiencies in 87 percent of the confidential informant Monitored in Police Spying: New Documents Reveal files it examined. OIG also noted failure by executive Maryland Program’s Reach,” Washington Post, January to believe,” he said, “not just in my ability managers to hold first-line supervisors accountable for 4, 2009, p. A01.

compliance deficiencies and exercise effective oversight 38 to bring about real change in Washington; of agents operating informants. http:www.usdog.gov/ Barack Obama, victory speech after primary, South I’m asking you to believe in yours.” For that oig/special/0509/chapter3.htm See also Dan Eggen, Carolina, January 26, 2008. http://www.mlive.com/ politics/index.ssf/2008/01/excerpts_from_obamas_ energy and enthusiasm to coalesce into an “FBI agents often break informant rules,” Washington Post, September 15, 2005, p. A15. victory_s.html organized political force, the Obama 39 13 Diana Welch, “The Informant: Revolutionary to Rat,” Nancy Chang, Silencing Political Dissent, Seven Stories administration must rein in domestic intel- Austin Chronicle, January 23, 2009, p. 7. Press, 2002, pp. 112-113. See e.g., Dane E. Johnson, “Cages, Clinics, and Consequences:The Chilling Prob- 14 ligence practices that disrupt communities Colin Moynihan, “Activist unmasks himself as federal lems of Controlling Special-Interest Extremism,” Ore- and discourage activism. ■ informant in G.O.P.Convention Case,” NewYorkTimes, gon Law Review 86 (2007), pp. 249-294. January 5, 2009. 40 James X. Dempsey, “Anti-Terrorism Investigations and 15 Austin Informant Working Group, “Austin RNC Inform- the Fourth Amendment After September 11: Where and End Notes ant Brandon Darby is Provocateur Not Hero.” Retrieved 1 When Can the Government Go to Prevent Terrorist Salvador Hernandez, “TustinMan Suspected of Terror- at http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2009/01/66155.php Attacks?” Statement before the House Committee on the ist Ties Pleads Not Guilty,” Orange County Register, 16 Judiciary, May 20, 2003. March 2, 2009. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/niazi- Marx, p. 421. 41 fbi-case-2321864-informant-bail 17 M. McMann, “The Police and the Confidential Inform- Jennifer Van Bergen, “FBI confidential informant also

2 ant,” M.A. thesis, University of Indiana (1954) in Marx, said to be provocateur,” The Raw Story, June 8, 2006. Gillian Flaccus, “Calif. case highlights use of mosque Anna was also the subject of an Elle magazine investigation informants,” Associated Press, March 1, 2009, supra, p. 416, n.17. 18 in its “Green Issue.” Andrea Todd, “The Believers,” http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/03/01/D96LD2A8 Marx, p. 420. Elle, May 2008, pp. 266-325. 1_mosque_spy/index.html ; Matt Coker, “A look at Craig 19 Austin Informant Working Group, “Austin RNC Inform- 42 Monteilh,” OC Weekly, March 4, 2009, Dennis Walsh,“Student’s path to FBI informant,” Sacra- ant Brandon Darby is Provocateur Not Hero,” retrieved http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-03-05/news/craig- mento Bee, September 13, 2007, B5. from http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2009/01/ monteilh ; Teresa Watanabe and Paloma Esquivel, “L.A. 66155.php. “Prominent Austin activist admits he area Muslims say FBI Surveillance has a chilling infiltrated,” radio interview at http://www.democra- effect,” Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2009. http://arti- cynow.org/2009/1/6/ cles.latimes.com/2009/mar/01/local/me-muslim1 20 Austin People’s Legal Collective unofficial verbatim 3 Gary T. Marx, “Thoughts on a Neglected Category of notes of McKay’s trial. Retrieved from http://brandon- Social Movement Participant: the Agent Provocateur darby.com and the Informant,” American Journal of Sociology 80 (Sept. 1974) pp. 415-421, p. 434. 21 Frank Donner, as quoted in Marx, p. 434. 4 Gregory F.Treverton, Reorganizing U.S. Domestic Intel- 22 The jury acquitted them of attempted murder. ligence: Assessing the Options, (New York: RAND Cor- 23 Amanda Ripley, “The Fort Dix Conspiracy,” Time, poration, 2008), p. 7. http://www.rand.org/pubs/ December 6, 2007. monographs/MG767/ 24 5 Geoff Mulvihill, “Informants’ action key in Fort Dix ter- This year’s National Fusion Center Conference featured ror case,” Newsday.com, May 10, 2007. a closed session on the radicalization phenomenon and 25 “understanding the process that leads a person to support Stephen Lendman, “TheTroubling Case of the Fort Dix and/or pursue violence.” U.S. Dept. of Homeland Secu- Five,” Counterpunch, December 31, 2008. rity, 2009 National Fusion Center Conference, March 10- http://www.counterpunch.org/lendman12312008.html 12, 2009. 26 Nick Juliano, “Entrapment? Five convicted in Ft. Dix 6 Randy Furst, “Terrorism charges against RNC 8 are plot,” Raw Story, December 22, 2008. http://rawstory. dropped,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 10, 2009. com/news/2008 http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/conven- 27 Dr. Ian Lustick, Statement on the Fort Dix Terror Plot tions/42749517.html?elr=KArks:DCiUtEia_nDay- case, December 22, 2008. cUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU 28 Frank Donner, The Age of Surveillance:The aims and meth- 7 According to the Minneapolis StarTribune, the reports doc- ods of America’s political intelligence system (New York: umented internal strains, gripes and names of activists, Vintage, 1981) p. 7. New Report from PRA! but no talk of property damage. 29 Amory Starr, Luis Fernandez, Randall Amster, “The 8 Available online now! Randy Furst, “ ‘Anarchist’ looked like someone’s mom,” impact of surveillance on the exercise of political rights: Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 1, 2008. an interdisciplinary analysis 1998-2006,” Qualitative 9 Marx, p. 403. Sociology 31, (July 2008), pp. 251-270 www.publiceye.org

THE PUBLIC EYE17 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye Book Review TheTabooTruths of the Conspiracy Minded the editorial staff of the Weekly Standard. Sniegoski suggests that The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in Israeli interests drove the first Gulf War as well. He joins the far the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel (Washing- Left and the far Right in sympathy for Slobodan Milosevic’s Ser- ton, D.C.: Enigma Editions, IHS Press, 2008). bia, and implies that neoconservatives pushed for NATO’s By Stephen J. Sniegoski Kosovo campaign in order to weaken international law, thus set- Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg ting the stage for their war in Iraq. Stephen J. Sniegoski’s The Transparent Cabal is a disturbing Sniegoski also throws in some unrelated conspiracy theories and revealing book, though not for the reasons the author for good measure. Though he argues that the second Iraq war intends. Sniegoski aims to show that U.S. neoconservatives mas- had nothing to do with energy supplies, he strongly suggests that terminded the Iraq war in the service of Israeli the war on Afghanistan was motivated by the hegemony, a proposition that has plenty of truth United States’ desire to build a pipeline through to it. In doing so, though, he veers back and forth that country. “Instead of serving as a pliable gov- over the often-fuzzy line separating harsh but ernment that could provide requisite stability legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism from for American exploitation of energy resources, paranoid conspiracy mongering. His book is an theTalibanwere exporting their revolutionary almost textbook illustration of the way far Left Islamic fundamentalism to nearby Central anti-Zionism and far Right antisemitism can Asian countries, thus destabilizing the entire bend towards each other and begin to overlap. energy-rich region,” he writes, citing the French The antisemitism in TheTransparent Cabal book Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth. He is quite subtle—so much so that many readers implies that 9/11 may have been a preemptive probably won’t see it, and will likely dismiss crit- strike by Osama bin Laden in response to U.S. icism of it as yet another attempt by the Likud threats against his host country. lobby to silence its foes. Such attempts exist, of This narrative, which has percolated on the course. The Right has often tried to smear political fringes in recent years, has been thor- opponents of both American and Israeli foreign oughly debunked by Ken Silverstein in The policy as bigots. One ironic effect of this is that American Prospect, Damien Cave in Salon and it offers an alibi to purveyors of prejudice, who David Corn in The Nation, among others. A can now cloak themselves in martyrdom.Thus Sniegoski adopts separate article would be required to recapitulate all their points. the pose of one bravely willing to reveal taboo truths. But the That’s the problem with conspiracy theories—they tend to jum- fact that many critics of Israel are unfairly accused of antisemitism ble truth, distortion, unfalsifiable claims and willful omissions does not make all accusations of antisemitism unfair. in a way that takes enormous time and energy to untangle. For There’s nothing new in The Transparent Cabal—indeed, it’s marginal books, it’s often not worth the effort. a kind of clip job. Most of its material about the neoconserva- Indeed, TheTransparent Cabal wouldn’t be worth bothering tives derives from mainstream media reports and well-known with at all if it weren’t receiving some notice on the Left, includ- books. From these secondary sources, though, Sniegoski has fash- ing a glowing review in Counterpunch. It is troubling that the ioned a monocausal narrative in which Israel and its American book might find an audience among progressives, but proba- supporters are the preeminent drivers of American foreign pol- bly not surprising. The taboo against criticizing Israel and dis- icy and the sole font of turmoil in the Middle East, which they’re cussing the power of the conservative Israel lobby has shrouded said to welcome because it serves Israel’s interests. In his telling, the whole subject in mystery.That fosters a kind of credulity in George W.Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are mere which outlandish claims take on the air of samizdat. supporting players, less culpable for the catastrophe in Iraq than It is important to be clear here. Neoconservatives inside and outside the George W.Bush administration deserve tremendous opprobrium.They helped erect the ideological justifications for Michelle Goldberg is the author, most recently, of The Means of war with Iraq and seized control of the public discourse, bully- Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World and ing anyone who urged patience and diplomacy. Most importantly, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. She is under Vice President Cheney, a group of neoconservatives a consultant investigating Islamophobia and antisemitism on played a crucial role in distorting American intelligence to campuses for Political Research Associates. make it seem as if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties

THE PUBLIC EYE18 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye to al Qaeda, creating a fallacious casus belli. Neoconservatism is somehow impossible for Sniegoski to accept. His is a Manichean is a movement famously founded by ex-leftists — many of them view of the world, the mirror image of the movement he aims Jewish — who lost their youthful ideals but not their radical (and to dissect. sometimes rigidly ideological) habits of mind.The revolutionary Just as the neoconservatives attribute a kind of cosmic evil to callousness they displayed in their grandiose plan to reshuffle many Islamic regimes, and dismiss all efforts at historical under- the Middle East has been catastrophic for people around the standing as amoral relativism, so Sniegoski sees only the diabolical world. in Israel. Obviously,that country is in many ways richly deserv- Nor is it any secret that the neoconservatives have longstanding ing of criticism, but there’s something suspect about the reflex- ties to the Israeli Right. Despite what Sniegoski seems to think, ive way the author demonizes the Jewish state while downplaying it is well know that, in 1996, leading neocons prepared a report or dismissing the aggression of its enemies. To read this book, for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu titled “A one would think Israel started every war it ever fought. Mean- Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” which while, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial is explained advocated replacing Middle Eastern regimes hostile to Israel with away thusly: “It was not apparent that Ahmadinejad had actu- more pliant rulers. Neoconservatives are aggressive American ally denied the mass murder of the Jews during World War II, nationalists, but they conflate the interests of the United States though he did, at various times, question various facets of the and Israeli Right.The policies they’ve pushed have undoubtedly Holocaust and demanded greater evidential proof.” Here, weakened the United States and made a two-state solution to Sniegoski’s language suggests he finds Holocaust revisionism rea- the Israel-Palestine conflict more elusive than ever. sonable. It’s a long way from there, however, to the claim that Israel To be sure, the author goes out of his way to distance him- alone inspired the Iraq war and that the catastrophic outcome self from antisemitism, and several times he notes that not all there was intentional, meant to keep Israel’s enemies fractured Jews support the neoconservative agenda or the Israeli Right. Nev- and disorganized. By treating George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, ertheless, he quotes openly antisemitic sources as authoritative, and Donald Rumsfeld as mere supporting players in the march at one point citing Kevin MacDonald, who he describes as a to war, co-opted or manipulated by the titular “cabal,” Sniegoski “rightist evolutionary biologist.” In fact, MacDonald is a socio- is playing into old stereotypes about covert, omnipresent and biologist who claims Jews are genetically extremely smart yet clan- almost occult Jewish influence. At one point, he calls Rumsfeld nish, and subversive of whatever society they find themselves in. “the fall guy for the war’s failures.” (In fact, as former countert- Among other things, MacDonald has written that eventually uni- errorism czar Richard Clark wrote in his book Against All Ene- versities may have to establish quotas to reduce the number of mies, “By the afternoon [the day after the attack], Secretary Jewish students, and that higher taxes on Jews may have to be Rumsfeld was talking about broadening the objectives of our levied “to counter the Jewish advantage in the possession of response and ‘getting Iraq.’”) The former Vice President is wealth.” To quote MacDonald on the subject of dual loyalties barely mentioned. in this context is roughly equivalent to appealing to the wisdom For the conspiracist, there are no accidents. Thus Sniegoski of David Duke in an argument over affirmative action. assumes that since Iraq devolved into an anarchic bloodbath, that Sniegoski also has a tendency to identify people’s Jewish her- must have been the plan all along. “Now one might be tempted itage whether it’s relevant or not. He notes, for instance, that to attribute the rejection of the military’s caution to insane hubris British Foreign Minister Jack Straw is “of Jewish ancestry.” In on the part of [Richard] Perle and the neoconservative crowd,” fact, Straw is a Christian who had one Jewish grandfather, he writes, before dispensing with that notion. “Richard Perle may though both Islamist and White supremacist websites fre- be many things, but stupid is not one of these. Perle undoubt- quently identify him as a Jew. edly thought through the implications of his plan.” Indeed, says If Sniegoski has picked up on antisemitic memes, perhaps Sniegoski, a “complete fiasco” could work to the neocons’ it’s because he has placed himself in an antisemitic milieu. The advantage by throwing the region into chaos and preparing the Transparent Cabal was put out by Enigma Editions, an imprint way for a wider war. (He doesn’t bother to address how Perle’s of IHS press created specifically for this volume. A far-right all-seeing brilliance squares with the total discrediting of neo- Catholic press that publishes titles like Action: A Manual for the conservatism and the increased strength of Iran that resulted from Reconstruction of Christendom, by French fascist Jean Ousset, the Iraq war.) IHS was described byThe Southern Poverty Law Center as one Likewise, he dismisses the idea that oil was part of the motive of the “most nakedly antisemitic organizations in the entire rad- for war by arguing that if it had been, the United States would ical traditionalist Catholic pantheon.” Sniegoski’s book fits in have made more of an effort to secure the country. The notion there nicely. ■ that the war-planners believed their own propaganda—a self- delusion apparent to almost every reporter who covered Iraq—

THE PUBLIC EYE19 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye

A Longtime Anti-Racism Activist’sTake on Timothy McVeigh, blows up a federal building in Oklahoma History to commemorate the Waco tragedy. Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Move- The ballot wing of the movement believes in mainstreaming ment from the Margins to the Mainstream by entering the fringes of electoral politics, either as Republi- By Leonard Zeskind cans, Democrats, Libertarians, Populists or another third party. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, 656 pages, $37.50 cloth. They seek to persuade a majority of people to support their views, Reviewed by Loretta J. Ross if not their candidacies. Typified by former Klansman David It is so irritating to watch Pat Buchanan on MSNBC.There Duke in the past, and currently by Pat Buchanan, this sector he was on Morning Joe, blaming the financial crisis on banks believes that the views of the White nationalist/White suprema- lending to people of color. His makeover as a respectable “con- cist movement can again become the dominant values of our soci- servative” pundit—conveniently forgetting his racist, homo- ety. Disavowing the violence and gutter epithets of their vigilante phobic, and anti-Semitic slippages—is a testament to the power cousins, time and repetition are their tactics as they seize upon of the mainstream media to shape a Wonderland world Alice every opportunity to claim that White people (or Western Civ- would have recognized. ilization) are under attack. Thank goodness for Leonard Zeskind’s long-awaited book. They’ve even won over a few people who are not White to It has restored my faith in the power of truth to trump travesty. their cause as they target immigrants and gays. Thirty years in the making, Blood and Poli- Zeskind debunks several myths often prop- tics reads like a political thriller that details inti- agated by other researchers. He warns against mate knowledge about the origins, history, stereotyping White nationalists as men “with leaders and activities of the White supremacist chewing tobacco” in their cheeks. Instead, they groups in the United States. But Zeskind’s book could be blue collar and working class, polished is no laundry list. His analysis helps us make sense business leaders, millionaires, or academics with of the netherworld of ideas and relationships that PhDs. Also, he says the rise and fall of White populate and bind together denizens of the Far supremacy cannot be linked simply to eco- Right, the Religious Right, and the ultra-con- nomic and business cycles as the victimized servative movements he places under the ban- look for scapegoats to explain their condition. ner of “White nationalism.” Their tactics, at least, are shaped by other fac- His argument is straightforward. White tors, says Zeskind, such as whether they believe nationalists are part of a single movement who their mainstreaming strategy is working, and embrace one of two strategies: they either work whether they expect serious consequences from in the mainstream or serve as a vanguard out- law enforcement authorities. When they perceive side the mainstream. This is a classic bullet- themselves as closer to the levers of power, they or-ballot struggle within the movement, as tend to favor their mainstreaming strategies. people oriented one way or the other compete for validity, fol- When they believe they have been relegated to the fringes, they lowers and money. Regardless of their strategic differences, he default to vanguardism, and sometimes violence. argues these are two wings of the same movement that share a Blaming the economy for the actions of White supremacists common goal: to place the “dispossessed majority” of White peo- is like a drunk blaming alcohol when he batters his wife. In each ple permanently in control of the future of our country. case, it’s an excuse, not a cause. The bullet sector believes it is a vanguard movement, a small The serious economic crisis facing this country may lubri- set of individuals and organizations who will lead the duped cate the anger of White supremacists, particularly now that we majority of White people into recognizing that their alleged racial have an African-American President. However, they would identity forms a nation under threat by all who do not share their have felt marginalized by any president who did not share their supposed race, particularly Jews and people of color.Tacticscho- values and speak to them in coded signals. Remember Ronald sen by this vanguard movement often include violence, threats Reagan making his first speech as the GOP’s 1980 Presidential of violence, and intimidation.They are to be found mostly below contender in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the murders the mainstream media’s radar until one of their warriors, like of three civil rights activists? Pat Buchanan is now the sanitized version of White supremacy Loretta Ross is National Coordinator of SisterSong, the women we have to watch everyday. Like his counterpart on CNN, Lou of color reproductive health collective based in Atlanta. She is Dobbs, he stokes the anger of the reputedly dispossessed major- coauthor of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for ity with fear mongering more subtly than Rush Limbaugh or Reproductive Justice. Book Review continues on page 23

THE PUBLIC EYE20 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye ……Reports in Review…… REPORT OF THE MONTH The Other Jackson race. He urges evangelicals to join the campaign to defund Planned Point Man for the Wedge Strategy: Harry Jackson is the Face of Parenthood because “they’ve put out a hit on all children, but they’ve the Religious Right’s Outreach to African American Christians set up themselves to put out a hit on Black and Hispanic babies espe- cially. It’s time that we take them out.” by Peter Montgomery, People For the American Way Foundation, Wash- ington, D.C., 2009. Although he failed to rally African-American churchgoers to oppose Obama’s presidential candidacy, he “took part in conference The African-American minister Harry Jackson was embraced as a calls designed to rally conservative pastors to support Proposition 8 rising star among leaders of the Christian Right in 2004 when he pro- in California,” which overturned the legalization of gay marriage in the claimed that God told him to help reelect George W.Bush. While he state.Yet it is difficult to track how influential he is among African-Amer- tones down his rhetoric to sound reasonable to the mainstream press, ican churchgoers beyond members of his Maryland church. he uses warlike imagery in his talks to gatherings of White evangeli- As a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals, he cals, writes Peter Montgomery, the author of this report. urged the dismissal of its vice president Richard Cizik based on his pol- Outside of the mainstream media’s eye, Jackson charges that pro- itics, and he participates in the Arlington Group, an insider leader- choice and pro-gay rights advocates will tear apart the family, attack ship circle that includes James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the structure and livelihood of religion and the church, and eventu- Perkins and others. Environmentalist concerns over global warming ally bring down the entire country due to their Satanic influences. suggests God isn’t in charge, he wrote in Personal Faith, Public Policy, Montgomery tracks Jackson’sefforts to bridge the gap betweenWhite his book with Perkins. In the book, he also supported denying citi- and Black Christian evangelicals—a goal shared by his lead champion zenship to children born in the United States to undocumented par- Tony Perkins, director of the Family Research Council, with whom ents. Montgomery also tracks his latest campaign against federal hate Jackson authored a book. Decrying abortion as “black genocide,” Jack- crimes legislation that covers attacks on gays, which Jackson called “an son appeared in an election season ad with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s all-out assault against Christians.” niece Alveda King, calling on African Americans not to vote based on –Kris Coombs and Abby Scher

Other Reports in Review

Making Green Jobs Good Jobs receiving development subsidies to follow pany hired anti-union consultants after work- High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in labor standards.The federal government uses ers contacted the Brotherhood of Electrical the New Green Economy “prevailing wage” rules, which can be effective Workers in January 2008 and more than 70 in well-paying (though not low-wage) sectors. percent signed cards calling for a union. In the By Philip Mattera, et. al. Good Jobs First, These practices should become standard, but end, the workers voted against the union. Washington, D.C., February 3, 2009. http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/gjfgreen should also be enforced.The study found that Since much of the “green” economic sec- jobsrpt.pdf cities dilute labor standards under pressure tor relies on government funding, the gov- while continuing to offer subsidies. In one ernment can have a huge impact by making Washington is abuzz with ideas to jump- example, “wind blade makerTPI Composites labor standards comprehensive, and giving start the economy, while investing in “green recently took over a former Maytag appliance them teeth by “clawing back” funding from jobs” that might lessen the damage we do to factory in Newton, Iowa where workers had companies that fail to follow the rules. our environment. President Obama’s stimu- been paid about $19 an hour. In 2007, TPI lus bill included funding for green jobs. But was given $2 million by the state with a Racial Profiling at the Border green jobs are not always well-paying jobs, requirement that it pay its workers only according to this report, so any investment— Unreasonable Intrusions: Investigating $13.47 an hour. The company sought addi- for instance, in manufacturing components the Politics, Faith & Finances of Ameri- tional public funds in 2008 from the Iowa Eco- for wind and solar energy, modernizing the cans Returning Home nomic Development Board, which agreed to energy grid, green construction and weather Muslim Advocates, April 20, 2009, San waive pay requirements that would have proofing buildings, mass transit, and recycling Francisco, Calif., http://www.muslim raised wages closer to Maytag rates.” —should be tied to good wages and not advocates.org/documents/Unreasonable_ Localities also give money to union bust- directed toward union-busting firms cur- Intrusions_2009.pdf ing firms like Clipper Windpower, which rently operating in the sector. This report is not the first time Muslim won more than $3 million in subsidies for its State and local governments have pro- Advocates has challenged the interrogation, turbine plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.The com- moted good jobs by requiring green businesses searches, and seizures of information on cell

THE PUBLIC EYE21 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye phones and laptops from Muslim Americans LGB Poverty Revealed state required school sex ed classes to promote traveling back into the country. The New Poverty in the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual abstinence over other options. ButTexasstu- York Times wrote an editorial decrying the Community dents are more sexually active, and less likely practice in July 2008, after the group’s direc- to use a condom, than American students as By Randy Albelda, M.V. Lee Badgett, Alyssa tor Ferhana Khera shared cases in testimony a whole.This report takes a closer look at sex Schneebaum and Gary J. Gates, The Williams to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Institute of UCLA, March 2009. https://www. ed classes in 96 percent of Texas middle and Constitution and civil rights, where she once policyarchive.org/bitstream/handle/10207/164 high schools in 990 districts, discovering that served as counsel. 78/LGBPovertyReport.pdf?sequence=1 more than 94 percent don’t offer any infor- The impact of this report, documenting mation beyond abstinence. Only 4 percent While the media and pop culture love to racial profiling and privacy intrusions target- teach how to prevent sexually transmitted dis- paint the image of the well-off, well dressed, ing Muslim Americans coming home, was eases, modes of contraception, and “respon- well educated, well-spoken gay man, this even more dramatic. Within weeks of its sible pregnancy.” study, the first of poverty among lesbian, gay release, Khera’s former “boss” on the sub- They found that courses used wrong infor- and bisexual (LGB) Americans, finds the committee, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold mation—for instance, on the failure rate of stereotype to be downright false. Looking at of Wisconsin, won a commitment from condoms—and descriptions of sex as dirty and three sets of data—the 2002 National Survey Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napoli- shameful to discourage sexual activity. They of Family Growth (NSFG), the 2003 & 2005 tano to review how border and customs police also found teachers using negative gender California Health Interview Surveys (CHIS), screen people they perceive to be Muslim stereotypes and anti-gay statements, and and the 2000 Census—they discovered that American, and look into cases where Muslim drawing on religious instruction and Bible LGBadultsandLGBsame-sexcouplesarejust citizens said they were harassed while traveling. study. as likely, if not more so, to live in poverty as Among the dozens of cases documented in They also found that more than 80 percent other adults living in the United States. the report: Yasir Qadhi, a Yale graduate stu- of the School Health Advisory Councils The various data sets suggest different dent with whom U.S. counterterrorism offi- (SHACs), which supposedly offer a forum for findings. Using the National Survey of cials have consulted about his research on community input on sexuality education, Family Growth, the researchers found that 24 violent religious movements, was stopped ignored the issue. percentoflesbiansandbisexualwomenfrom several times by border agents who asked 18 to 44 years old are poor, compared with about the content of his lectures, the mosques only 19 percent of heterosexual women. At 15 where he worships, and his circle of acquain- percent, gay men and bisexual men have BATTLE OVER LABOR LAW continued from page 4 tances. They also copied data off his cell poverty rates equal to those of heterosexual ies, April 30, 2009. http://www.southernstudies.org/ phone. 2009/04/labor-and-business-battle-for-soul-of-southern- men (13 percent) in the NSFG. The Border agents have the power to search any democrats.html researchers encountered familiar data: African- 3 laptop or phone even without cause for Only 12.4 percent of U.S. workers were unionized in American LGB couples are statistically poorer 2008 but that is a slight increase from the year before, suspicion.They,along with national security than White couples, as are LGB couples according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. agents, are the only police allowed freely to http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm “The living in rural areas. But children of same-sex use racial profiling under U.S. Department of Youngstown Election Report: Notes on Unions and parents are twice as likely to be impoverished White Working-Class Voters,” Working Class Perspec- Justice guidelines dating to 2003. as children of different-sex parents. tives, Center for Working Class Studies at Youngstown Racial and ethnic profiling leads to the State University, November 17, 2008. http://working- The researchers link these higher poverty equivalent of unwarranted searches and classstudies.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/the-youngstown- rates to discrimination both in the workplace election-report-notes-on-unions-and-white-working-class-voters/ seizures, violations of citizens’ Constitutional 4 and in access to affordable health insurance, American Rights at Work’s wonderful investigation of the right to reenter the country unimpeded, and and government health and retirement ben- front groups can be found here: http://www.american- a waste of government resources and time from rightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of- efits that require couples to be married. LGB commerce/coalition-for-a-democratic-workplace-exposed-20 false leads. This racial profiling generates people shunned by their families are also left 080424-557-273.html streams of data that, in the controversial intel- 5 without an important safety net. Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. http://cap- ligence framework of “mosaic theory” wiz.com/friendsoftheuschamber/issues/alert/?alertid embraced by investigators, is fed into databases =12426031 Texa s S ex E d 6 so that agents can “connect the dots” and iden- Kimberly Hefling and Sam Hananel, “Specter raises hopes for deal on major labor bill,” Associated Press, May tify national security threats. As Khera asks in Just Say Don’t Know: Sexuality Education 14, 2009. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/ the report’s preface, “What is the U.S. gov- in Texas Public Schools article/ALeqM5ht9x6ENpKhQRwIOEqPyna ernment doing with the information being Dr. David Wiley and Dr. Kelly Wilson with OYCHkpwD9867LD83 seized and amassed? … Where is the oversight Ryan Valentine, Texas Freedom Network Edu- 7 The Institute for Southern Studies has stayed on top of this group’s operations in the south. Sue Sturgis, “Inves- and accountability to protect innocent Amer- cation Fund, Austin, Texas, February 2009. tigation:The oil money behind the anti-stimulus fight,” icans?” Napolitano committed to undertak- http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?page- Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies, February 16, name=SexEdReportIndexPage 2009. http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/02/the- ing the investigation within 45 days and oil-money-behind-the-anti-stimulus-fight.html report back to Congress. Texas is the flagship state for abstinence 8 http://www.hotairtour.org/ education in high schools; a decade ago the

THE PUBLIC EYE22 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye Eyes RIGHT

THE DESTRUCTION depends.” “I think if we believe the person libertarian think-tanker David Theroux, HOMOSEXUALS WROUGHT we have can give us information to stop stopping General Mills from making ques- Flip Benham of the militant anti-abortion thousands of Americans from being killed, tionable health claims is just another of the Operation Rescue/ Operation Save America it would be morally suspect to not use harsh Obama administration’s “ ‘progressive’ (i.e., is doing flips himself over the federal hate tactics to get that information.” authoritarian) absurdities.” crimes bill supported by many LGBT organ- Eric Gorski, “Torture debate prompts evangelical soul- Source: “Defending Cheerios, Cereal of Liberty,” Slate’s izations. In a press release, Benham mis- searching,” Associated Press, May 13, 2009. The Big Money, May 13, 2009. http://www.thebig- http://www.mercurynews.com/religion/ci_12359040 money.com/blogs/daily-bread/2009/05/13/defending- leadingly claims, “If we do not act decisively cheerios-cereal-liberty at this time, S.909 will make illegal every word in the Bible describing the destruction OBAMA’SWAR ON CHEERIOS wrought by [homosexuality], and prepare the America’s right-leaning commentariat blames way for total censorship of the Gospel of Obama for the Food and Drug Administra- Christ. Our children will pay a horrible price tion’s demand that General Mills tone down for our cowardice.” its health claims for Cheerios. The FDA “Truth is Hate to Those Who Hate the Truth,” Christian says General Mills’ claim that Cheerios can Eye LASHES Newswire, May 13, 2009. http://www.christian- “lower your cholesterol 4 percent in 6 weeks“ newswire.com/news/899310350.html is one that more properly, and according to federal law, should apply only to drugs WHO CARES IF JESUS designed to cure disease.The claims amount Playing by the left’s rules WOULDN’TTORTURE to a “serious violation” of laws governing label “is a losing strategy. This is Longtime Christian Right leader Gary Bauer claims. why I started Youth for took a stab at defending torture, disagreeing “Washingtonraised ciggie taxes to pay for with those who suggest it is un-Christian. SCHIP expansion and are [sic] gearing up to Western Civilization as a “There are a lot of things Jesus wouldn’t do raise soda taxes to pay for Obamacare,” movement to confront the because he’s the son of God,” he said. “I can’t writes columnist Michelle Malkin. “No vice cult of diversity and mul- imagine Jesus being a Marine or a policeman is safe from the health police. Dijon mustard or a bank president, for that matter.The more and arugula exempted, of course.” ticulturalism and the appropriate question is, ‘What is a follower Marketing Cheerios as medicine is being repression that inevitably of Jesus permitted to do?’” The answer is “it defended as a matter of liberty. According to follows. Contrary to the smears of the far-left, we BOOK REVIEW continued from page 20 are not ‘racist’—we have a Sarah Palin, but he is no less dangerous. The mainstreamers send unambiguous messages to their violent subculture that potentially turns threats into actions. multiracial membership Zeskind’s research demands that we warily watch for an escalation of violence by united in the belief that those feeling disenfranchised and out of power. The book stops short of predicting America is our home and an all-out White revolution. He does suggest that in about 40 years when the major- ity of people in this country are no longer classified as White, alienated White peo- Western culture is our ple could become more vulnerable to being recruited by the White nationalist culture and we will fight movement. to defend them. My only disappointment with the book is that it ended rather abruptly. Only a ” few pages were devoted to predicting where and how the White supremacist move- – Kevin DeAnna, founder of the new ment might resurge in the 21st century. I’ve learned from Zeskind, both from the campus group, quoted by front- book and from our years working together, that they never retreat—just regroup. ■ pagemag.com

THE PUBLIC EYE23 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye

■ Yes! I want to support The Public Eye. Enclosed is a donation of: SupportThe Public Eye magazine! ■ $1000 ■ $750 ■ $500 ■ $250 ■ $100 ■ $50 ■ Help us provide the best reporting Other $______■ and analysis on the U.S. Right Yes, I want to subscribe to The Public Eye, $21. and government repression. ■ Check Enclosed ■ Charge my Mastercard or Visa (circle one)

Each issue of The Public Eye Account # ______Exp Date ______costs $12,000 to produce – Signature ______not including staff time! Name ______Yetwestillmakeitavailable Adress ______to everyone who wants it, City ______State _____ Zip______with your help. Mail form with payment to: Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, MA 02144-1837

NON-PROFIT ORG. ThePublicEye U.S POSTAGE MAGAZINE PAID BOSTON, MA Political Research Associates PERMIT NO. 54584 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

THE PUBLIC EYE24 SUMMER 2009 PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER