Debra Burlingame has the facts on who is behind the "International Freedom Center" -- i.e., the memorial planned at Ground Zero.
 The driving force behind the IFC is Tom Bernstein, the dynamic co-founder of the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex who made a fortune financing Hollywood movies. But his capital ventures appear to have funded his true calling, the pro bono work he has done his entire adult life--as an activist lawyer in the human rights movement. He has been a proud member of Human Rights First since it was founded--as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights--27 years ago, and has served as its president for the last 12. | |
| The public has a right to know that it was Mr. Bernstein's organization, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, that filed a lawsuit three months ago against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was Human Rights First that filed an amicus brief on behalf of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the Justice Department believes is an al Qaeda recruit. It was Human Rights First that has called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the alleged torture of detainees, complete with budget authority, subpoena power and the ability to demand that witnesses testify under oath. | |
| In fact, the IFC's list of those who are shaping or influencing the content and programming for their Ground Zero exhibit includes a Who's Who of the human rights, Guantanamo-obsessed world: | |
| • Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the worldwide "Stop Torture Now" campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld's refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is "irresponsible and dishonorable." | |
| • Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11. | |
| • Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, "I'm not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House." This is the same man who participated in a "teach-in" at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, "The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military," and called for "a million Mogadishus." The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner's statement warning that future discussions should not be "overwhelmed" by the IFC's location at the World Trade Center site itself. | |
| • George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib "hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself." |
You can use their button on your website. Remember: Anything that has "international" and "freedom" in the title is a socialist trick. Think "Peace and Justice" and you'll get the idea.
Such a disgusting bunch of movers and shovers should not have their way on this one.
Nota Bene: There are addresses and information about people you can write. Letters are probably the most effective tool. A good chance to use the Mail Merge on your tool bar.
1 comments:
International Freedom Center? the very concept, when you think about it, strictly in the abstract with no idea of what exactly they propose, is curious. Since when is freedom about going to a great center of sacred and secular, i.e. this worldly, attention, as opposed, say, to my staying out here on the periphery and making my own being and statement a little center - for anyone who comes along - doing it freely and with no institutional bulwarks or mass promotions, and just hoping that someone might come along and say that my words are good. That's freedom. (THanks D & B for helping out.)
What manner of "free" center could it be if the IFC were to presume to focuss the attention of all the nations, or perhaps only those who no longer care about their nations, on a common spot, and statement? Is that freedom for the peoples of the world? You'd have to have a pretty big and delusional ego to think *you* could stand at the center of the world and tell a story, *the* story, that would contribute to all people's sense of their own freedom.
Much better just to leave it to New Yorkers and Americans. This Canuck will never visit an IFC, but I might be curious to hear how *Americans* come to understand themselves and their place in the world, if there were a free and open debate about that. How much longer do we have to live with the conspiracy between the left and the haute bourgeois, with both sides secretly desiring each other's attentions, eventhough they're supposed to be in deadly opposition, according to their own fetid rhetorics. How can anyone or any visitor take Manhattan New Yorkers - the most privileged and the most self-hatingly wacky - seriously nowadays, notwithstanding the tragedy of 9/11?
Post a Comment