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- Warren
Kinsella Rants on the
Freedom-Site in the National
Post
- Our
Response Included at end
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Far right's opposition to
war is no surprise Bombing of Kosovo has whipped
extremists into fury
- Warren Kinsella - Guest Commentary in the
National Post
- National Post | Tuesday, June 01, 1999
It is not merely the far left, the New
Democratic Party, and assorted tenured
university professors who oppose the war against
Slobodan Milosevic. The far right -- neo-Nazis,
white supremacists, Holocaust deniers and their
apologists -- strenuously object to the
conflict, as well. Given the latter group's
well-documented fondness for destabilizing
conflicts, and the usage of force, this may come
as a surprise.
But it should not, as we will see.
A quick tour through some of the 1,600 Web
sites that far-right groups maintain on the
World Wide Web shows near-total unanimity on
NATO's action. From far and wide, skinheads and
Klansmen and their ilk have been whipped into an
indignant fury about the war.
Ernst Zundel, for example, is a Toronto-based
pro-Nazi publisher. On his much-visited Web home
-- called the "Zundelsite" and
maintained for him by a follower in California
-- Zundel recently offered up his views on the
conflict: "[The war is] a chance for the
proponents of multiculturalism to enforce their
liberal chimera with guns and bombs . . . If
NATO wins, the military-industrial complex can
rub its blood-stained hands with glee, while the
mothers weep and babies die."
Zundel's Web site manager struck a similarly
melodramatic tone, sympathetically likening
Milosevic's position to that of Hitler, and
referring to NATO as "the warlords of the
New World Order." As was the case with Nazi
Germany, the Zundelsite proclaims, the Serbs
merely wish to fashion "policies according
to their own cultural traditions and needs, not
the needs of liberal pipe dreamers and one-world
globalists!"
David Irving, a British Holocaust denier who
refers to himself as a "moderate
fascist," has frequently used his slick Web
site to denounce the war. Just last week, for
example, Irving reproduced a critical column by
Canadian journalist Michael Harris, stating that
it highlighted what he called "NATO's
half-truths, lies and bloody murder in the
Balkans."
Elsewhere, between advertisements for posters
of Hitler and Irving's much-reviled books, the
British writer provides a direct e-mail link to
the "Letters to the Editor" section at
the National Post. Irving's followers are
encouraged to write to the Post, applauding an
anti-war column that appeared here by Prof.
Michael Bliss, and supplied with tips on how to
compose their letters.
The principal Web address for Canadian
neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups such as
the Heritage Front is called the Freedom Site.
At the four-year-old Web location, former
Armed Forces reservist Marc Lemire provides a
platform for the like-minded to heap opprobrium
on multiculturalism, immigration, the Holocaust
and "censorship" of the Internet.
(Parenthetically, Messrs. Zundel and Irving have
expressed tremendous affection for the CRTC's
recent decision to refrain from preventing the
circulation of hate propaganda in cyberspace.)
A very recent essay on the Freedom Site is
headlined: "Why Christians should oppose
the War on Serbia." Among other things, the
correspondent objects to the fact NATO is
"bombing Christian women and children on
behalf of Muslims!" If anyone deserves to
be bombed, the Freedom Site columnist suggests,
it is the Muslims for their faith.
There is much more of this sort of offal for
those with the stomach for it. But, suffice to
say, the far right remains steadfast in its
opposition to the war in the Balkans. Why so?
The war against Milosevic's regime, most
agree, is a long-overdue and co-ordinated
international response to a humanitarian crisis.
The fact Western leaders have pointed to the
lessons of the Holocaust as a historical
rationale for the NATO effort has rendered the
far right apoplectic. Just as they know the
reputation of National Socialism cannot be
rehabilitated while a crime as monstrous as the
Holocaust continues to be associated with
Naziism, the leaders of the far right are
certainly aware that oratory that draws
parallels between Adolf Hitler and Slobodan
Milosevic is unhelpful to their cause.
Similarly, the far right generally supports
the genocidal program devised by Milosevic, and
called ethnic cleansing: The forced separation
of certain races, creeds and ethnic groups has
been a core belief of the far right, after all,
since the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan in
Tennessee in 1865. As the passage from the
Zundelsite makes clear, the far right also
possesses a lively paranoia about "One
World Government" and its assorted
manifestations -- the United Nations, the global
banking system, gun control and black
helicopters.
On the rare occasions when the international
community actually joins forces to prevent a
pogrom -- as was the case eight years ago during
the Persian Gulf War -- the far right (like the
far left) will be seen agitating against the
effort. To the adherents of the Freedom Site,
the Serbs are regarded as modern-day Christian
Crusaders, once again ridding Europe of unwanted
ethnic impurities.
If a cause may be judged by the character of
those who support it, so too may it be judged by
the quality of those who do not.
By that measure, the war against the regime
of Slobodan Milosevic is a very noble cause,
indeed.
Warren Kinsella is a Toronto lawyer, and
author of Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right
Network.
Article Kinsela refers to is at http://www.freedomsite.org/colum/owens1.html |
|
MARC
LEMIRE'S RESPONSE TO WARREN KINSELLA |
| Marc
Lemire |
Sent
via facsimile |
June
01, 1999 |
| Dear Sir;
Warren Kinsella's opinion piece
"Far right's opposition to war is
no surprise" (National Post, June
1, 1999) is as usual for Kinsella full
of errors.
As the owner and system
administrator of the Freedom-Site I
take offence to Mr. Kinsella referring
to my site as "The principal Web
address for Canadian neo-Nazi and
white supremacist groups such as the
Heritage Front is called the Freedom
Site" Had Mr. Kinsella bothered
to read any of the material on the
site he would clearly see that the
site is certainly not a site of
"neo-nazi and white supremacist
groups" but rather a site where
people are free to speak their minds
on topics such as Immigration, freedom
of speech, multiculturalism and other
issues important to a variety of
Canadians.
A quick look at on our search
engine for the term "hitler"
clearly shows that we are not
"neo-nazis" as Kinsella
would have readers to believe. For
instance you would find the great
columnist from British Columbia Doug
Collins saying that "... I am 77
years of age, that I defended freedom
in the 1940s when Hitler was on the
loose, in the 1950s when McCarthy was
on the loose, in the 1970s when the
federal hate laws were passed, in the
1990s when those idiots in Victoria
passed their misnamed Human Rights
Act, and that I shall go on defending
freedom until the day I die." Or
you would find Paul Fromm of the
Canadian Association for Free
Expression saying "I've asked my
folks, why my Mom devoted five years
of her life to World War II, and my
Dad four ... and they said "We'd
heard there were these Nazis in
Germany and they did things like
burning books." And I thought -
well, my God - what has changed? They
may have beaten Hitler, but we still
have book burners." It doesn't
sound like the raving words of
extremist "neo-nazis" at
all! Why would Kinsella, who is the
number 1 visitor to the Freedom-Site
in the entire world want readers to
believe different?
The Freedom-site unlike many other
sites on the Internet has open forums
where visitors are allowed to take
part and state their opinions, free of
censorship. Mr. Kinsella himself has
taken part in those forums and has
posted his opinions on losing a case
in British Columbia in which he
libelled Roger Rocan.
Mr. Kinsella goes on in his piece
to say that "A very recent essay
on the Freedom Site is headlined: 'Why
Christians should oppose the War on
Serbia.' Among other things, the
correspondent objects to the fact NATO
is 'bombing Christian women and
children on behalf of Muslims!' If
anyone deserves to be bombed, the
Freedom Site columnist suggests, it is
the Muslims for their faith."
This is an outright lie. No where in
the article he refers to, which can be
found at http://www.freedomsite.org/colum/owens1.html,
does the author, Samuel Owens, say
that Muslims should be bombed for
their faith.
Kinsella says later in the article
that "To the adherents of the
Freedom Site, the Serbs are regarded
as modern-day Christian Crusaders,
once again ridding Europe of unwanted
ethnic impurities" No where in
the article are Muslims or
"Ethnic Albanians" referred
to as "unwanted ethnic
impurities". In fact the author
of the article makes the point that
"'Ethnic Albanian' is a code word
for 'illegal alien.' The 'ethnic
Albanians' do not want to be a part of
Serbia. They claim they have
majorities in some urban areas. Should
an alien group be given independence
based on their birth rate? Los Angeles
is 90% Hispanic. Should LA be ceded to
Mexico? Washington, D.C. is 80%
African-American. Should Washington,
D.C. be ceded to South Africa?"
Considering Mr. Kinsella has
generated a staggering 5,251 hits,
from July, 1998 to May 10, 1999 or
14.3 hits per day in a year period, he
should be able to clearly read the
material that was posted, and not
resort to misrepresenting what is on
my website.
The truth of the matter is that
Warren Kinsella is obsessed with my
website. He is the largest single user
to visit my website, as pointed out
above. He was extremely mad, that I
have pointed out on numerous occasion
that he has lied, specifically when he
said on the April 12, 1998 CBC show
"On the Line" that "...
a fellow in BC, a little guy named
Bernard Klatt, who runs a little
server that hosts the US Nazi Party,
that hosts various sites that advocate
death to Jews, Blacks, non-Whites,
Feminists and disabled people".
Then goes on in the show to claim that
Bernard Klatt has posted HITLISTS of
people on his webserver. Both
absolutely untrue. Have a look
yourself and see for yourself how
crazy such a statement by Kinsella is:
http://www.ftcnet.com/~bwklatt/gmvs0328.htm
Out of that article Kinsella wrote
me and threatened to sue me, and again
lied in his letter dated Monday April
13, 1998 which he claims I violated a
supposed undertaking that Paul Fromm
took in 1996, and then goes on to
allege that Mr. Fromm has violated
this undertaking. This is a serious
charge, which is utterly false. I have
spoken personally to Mr. Fromm and he
informs me that no such undertaking
has ever been given as mentioned in
Kinsella's letter. Kinsella goes on to
accuse me of trying to avoid service
of documents, which again from a
lawyer is a very serious charge, and
of course is utterly false.
Kinsella has even went as low as to
send me letters that read "You
Hitler-loving pillow biter. [Your] Too
busy stocking up on kiddie porn
..." E-Mail message dated Wed, 27
Jan 1999.
Warren Kinsella clearly has an
agenda, which includes smearing people
he disagrees with.
- Marc Lemire
- System Administrator
- The Freedom-Site
www.freedomsite.org
|
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RESPONSE
FROM PAUL FROMM |
| Paul
Fromm |
Sent
via facsimile |
June
1, 1999 |
| Dear Sir:
Warren Kinsella's opinion piece
"Far right's opposition to war is
no surprise" (National Post, June
1, 1999) is a disgrace and a mish-mash
of smear and disinformation.
One thing he does have right is
that the left and the right and, truth
to tell, many in the centre, are
united against Canada's involvement in
Clinton's War. He makes the scurrilous
and preposterous claim that "the
far right generally supports the
genocidal programme devised by
Milosevic and called ethnic
cleansing."
What follows are our reasons for
opposing any Canadian participation in
Clinton's war of aggression in
Yugoslavia.
NATO is a defensive alliance. No
NATO member has been attacked. The
NATO attacks are attempting to
forcibly meddle in the internal
affaitrs of a sovereign nation. We
would rightly resent foreign air
strikes to punish a Canadian
government for efforts to suppress
violent Quebec separatists.
Nations are well-advised to ponder
carefully before letting "slip to
the dogs of war" which, as
Shakespeare warns, create
"havoc" and unexpected
consequences. Mumbling Pentagonese,
Kinsella hails Clinton's War as
"a long overdue ... international
response to a humanitarian
crisis." Well, this
"humanitarian" war has
already caused great "collateral
damage" (to use aniother Pentagon
obfuscation). The demolition of the
Chinese Embassy in Belgrade has
plunged U.S.-China relations to their
lowest in several decades. Admittedly,
the Kosovars may have been poorly
treated prior to hostilities. Now,
over three quarters of a milion have
been made into refugees. Some victory
for the "humanitarians"!
Nations should only go to war when
attacked or to defend clear, narrow
national interests. Obviously, Canada
hasn't been attacked by Serbia and it
is hard to imagine that Serbia
threatens any serious national
interest.
The Balkans are immensely
complicated. The region is riven by
religious, ethnic, ideological, and
linguistic fissures. All factions have
long memories. Otto von Bismarck
wisely concluded that the region, like
a surly bear, was best left alone. He
declared: "The Balkans are not
worth the blood of one Pomeranian
grenadier."
To take one example. What's going
on in Kosovo is a bit more complicated
than "ethnic cleansing,."
The region was, until recently, Serb.
Albanian Muslim Kosovars have moved in
and overwhelmed the Serbs over the
past half century. The regiion
contains the Field of Blackbirds, an
emotive shrine where Serb Christians
were massacred in a heroic attempt to
stop the invading Muslim Turks. Would
Americans be quite so moralistic if,
say, Hispanics came to dominate
Pennsylvania and decided to secede,
taking with them such historical
shrines as the home of the Liberty
Bell and Valley Forge?
Kinsella does the serious debate
between us Isolationists and his
fellow internationalist
interventionists no service by
striking up the chant of Klan, Nazis,
and Holocaust with which he created so
much unhelpful smoke in his much
criticized book Web of Hate: Inside
Canada's Far Right Network.
Sincerely yours,
- Paul Fromm
- Director, C-FAR
|
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Author
of Article Responds to Kinsella |
| Samuel
Owens |
By
E-Mail |
|
| Sirs,
Mr. Kinsella wrote an article about
the growing opposition from all sides
against NATO's war on Serbia. I am the
author of the article headlined,
"Why Christians should oppose the
War on Serbia" which is displayed
on the Freedom Site which Mr. Kinsella
cited. This four page article traces
the origin of the Balkan struggle and
gives reasons why Christians should
oppose the aggression.
I am glad that I am on record as
vehemently opposing the "bombing
of Christians women and children on
behalf of Muslims!" Sadly Mr.
Kinsella totally misrepresents me when
he says that I believe that Muslims
should be bombed for their faith. Mr.
Kinsella you should be ashamed of
yourself. I want to stop this
senseless slaughter while Mr. Kinsella
is stroking the fires of hatred which
cause such outrages as this bombing of
Serbia. I do not want to see anyone
bombed!
In fact our outrage should be even
more kindled in light of the events of
the past few days in which NATO has
killed a 100 women, children and old
people in their latest misfire, the
bombing of the sanatorium in Surdulica.
Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Sandy
Berger, and General Clark are truly
evil people and more insane and
ruthless than the Nazis. Even the
Nazis didn't bomb hospitals, schools,
monasteries and churches. Our nation
must come to its senses now.
I have enclosed a copy of my
article for your inspection and
publication. Please see if you can
find where I claim that Muslim's
should be bombed for their faith.
-Samuel Owens |
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