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}}}>Begin Holy war on dissent Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange 03.15.02 - Who needs an Office of Strategic Influence when you've got William Bennett and his newly formed Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT)? Bennett announced the founding of AVOT at the National Press Club on March 12, saying its aims are to "take to task those groups and individuals who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the war we are facing." Bennett has a long resume that includes lots of time on the government payroll. The official bio posted at AVOT.org notes he is: Co-Director of Empower America and EMPOWER.org; former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities; former secretary of education, and former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Bennett co-chairs the Partnership for a Drug- Free America, with former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, and he has written or edited 17 books, including "The Book of Virtues." His current book, "Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism," will be in bookstores April 2002. Unmentioned in Bennett's resume is the fact that although he supported the War in Vietnam, he apparently had the "moral clarity" not to serve in the military. When not on the government payroll, Bennett has been occupying a number chairs at right-wing think tanks. At the AVOT launch, Bennett named names; individuals who have had the gall to question the president's "war on terrorism." Team AVOT Frank Gaffney is one of Bennett's chief cohorts on this project -- which is sponsored by Bennett's Empower America. You've met people like Gaffney before. He's the guy at the party who always saying the most outrageous and ridiculous stuff, and you figure he's got to be kidding. Only he's not laughing. Gaffney is president of the ultra-right Center for Security Policy (CSP) which, writes Jim Lobe in Alternet, "has long led the inside-the-Beltway campaign for Star Wars." Gaffney is also one of those guys who show up on the television talking head programs in times of war. He's been a repeat guest on "Hardball," CNBC's nightly talkfest hosted by Chris Matthews. In a recent "Hardball" appearance Gaffney defended what most people in the world think is indefensible -- the Bush Administration's plans for the use of nuclear weapons. Gaffney called it a program set up by "adults" to look at all the available options. According to the Los Angeles Times' Paul Richter, the plan calls for nuclear weapons to be used in three types of situations: "against targets able to withstand nonnuclear attack; in retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons; or 'in the event of surprising military developments.'" (For more on the study, see "Put up yer nukes:The Pentagon's nuclear dreams are our nightmares.") Another key advisor is former Director of Central Intelligence, James Woolsey. Woolsey has been the number one -- with a bullet, so to speak -- television- promoter of going to war with Iraq. He was trying to sell that baby when Geraldo Rivera was still with CNBC -- basically, since the U.S. bombing campaign began. Lobe explains that Woolsey, as a member of the Pentagon's defense Policy Board was sent to Europe shortly after September 11 to "gather evidence linking Iraq" to the attacks. Lobe: "Woolsey is closely associated with a pro-Likud position on the Middle East and sits on the board of the Jewish Institute for National Security (JINSA), a hawkish pro-Likud group. On Tuesday, he told reporters he agreed with those who are 'calling the war we're in now World War IV.'" Other senior advisors include: William Barr, former U.S. Attorney General; Walid Phares, Middle East scholar, author and professor at Florida Atlantic University; Ruth Wisse, author, scholar and professor at Harvard University; and Lawrence Kadish, philanthropist and financial advisor. (For their official bios, see http://www.avot.org/stories/storyReader$7.) I'm not sure why these folks need another organization to attack dissenters or those ever so gently raising questions about the war. There are groups like the Lynne Cheney and Joseph Lieberman founded American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) working that angle. Not long ago ACTA issued its silly yet dangerous report, "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It," which branded university professors as the weak link in the fight against terrorism. (For more on ACTA, see "Lynne Cheney's campus crusade: Second Lady's ACTA launches campaign against 'Blame America First' academics.") Then there's always the ubiquitous David Horowitz who seems to have developed a cottage industry out of his appearances at various colleges and universities. However, when Lawrence Kadish, a real estate investor in New York and Florida and chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), offers you more than $500,000 you don't just walk away. Lobe writes that Kadish, who has worked to forge links between Jews and the Christian Right base within the GOP, is one of the party's "largest individual contributors." AVOT plans to hold teach-ins at a number of "America's most prestigious colleges and universities" beginning in September, 2002. It also intends to "use various media outlets to promote America's democratic ideals and to support the use of our military around the world in defense of those principles." In its $128,000 kick-off announcement that appeared in the New York Times "Week in Review" section on Sunday, March 10, 2002, AVOT warned that "While support for U.S. policies is at present very high, we believe that unless public opinion is reinforced, our national resolve will weaken over time." And this "resolve" is mainly threatened by internal critics, "who are attempting to use this opportunity to promulgate their agenda of 'blame America first.'" Naming names Bennett opened the press conference by warning that, "Professional and amateur critics of America are finding their voice." He chastised former president Jimmy Carter for remarks he made that were critical of the president's use of the term "axis of evil." Bennett also named congresswoman Maxine Waters, author of "Prozac Nation" Elizabeth Wurtzel, American Prospect columnist Robert Kuttner, and African- American novelist John Edgar Wideman, among others, who are giving comfort to the enemies of democracy. Lobe reports that Bennett also singled out Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's Magazine. "In a recent editorial Lapham wrote suggestively about the elasticity of the word 'terrorism' and cited examples where Washington itself has used terrorist tactics during the 1990s, including the bombing of civilian targets in Baghdad and the Balkans." In response to the AVOT's criticism, Lobe quotes Lapham calling Bennett a "wrong- headed jingo and an intolerant scold." Lapham described AVOT's comparison of the threat posed by Al Qaeda with those of fascism and communism as a "grotesque exaggeration." The group, Lapham added, appears to be a new "front organization for the hard neo-con (neo- conservative) right." (For Jim Lobe's Alternet piece, see http://www.alternet.org/ story.html?StoryID=12612. For more on Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT), see http://www.avot.org/stories/storyReader$29.) � 2002 WorkingForChange.com URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=12978 End<{{{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. 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