"Our Prime Minister has defended Free Speech. to what extent . . . remains to be seen. David Irving will now again apply for a visa to visit Australia.
Increased film activity of anti-German films on TV. . . "
The second letter commented somewhat along the same lines:
"A wonderful, Independent member of Australia's upper house of parliament - Mrs. Pauline Hanson - has delivered a groundbreaking speech. She has called for a stop on Asian immigration into Australia, an end to preferential treatment of minority groups, and a return to Majority rule - White , Christian. She has been defended by our new Centre - Right Prime Minister (for) her right to express her opinion. Our new Prime Minister is allowing the lid to be lifted on healthy debate on previously taboo issues.
These groups she has targeted have now seen fit to attack Mrs. Hanson in the Press very vigorously and also make death threats against her life. She is now in hiding.
It is still early days to see how much of this new-found freedom of speech is just rhetoric, but as a test of this new climate, David Irving is planning to reapply for a visa to lecture here in Australia. He was refused a visa under our previous politically correct government but wishes to try again. . . . we all await the result of his request for a visa.
If it is accepted, it (will be) a tremendous indication that in Australia, at least , the tide of (censorship) has turned. Ripples in a pond always spread to the sides. . . "
* From France we hear that on September 24, when Attorney Delcroix, Dr.
Robert Faurisson's legal counsel, stood trial for Revisionist writings,
". . . Plenty of lawyers came to support him, and even the No. 3 of Front National, Bruno Gollnisch,who is also a lawyer! And also J. M. le Pen's daughter, who is also a lawyer. . . "
For the first time ever, there were articles in the paper our correspondent
describes as ". . . not bad at all."
". . . Monsieur Delcroix was very brilliant; he proved that the 6 pieces of his book (La Police de la pense contre le revisionisme) he was sued for were not falling under Article 24 of the Fabius-Gayssot law but said very clearly he was a revisionist, even a revisionist militant, but that the court should not judge him for what he is and only for what he writes . . . "
Delcroix stated that he was proud to work for an extraordinary man like
Dr. Faurisson. He added that the progress of ideas doesn't stop inside the
courtrooms.
". . . Of course we are never optimistic," writes our observer on the scene, "but for once we have a tiny hope.
Actually, the important point is that the National Front is (beginning) to show they are revisionist and le Pen has asked again for a debate. . . . "
* From the Censorship Busters comes a reminder: Don't forget Banned Books
Week. I quote here from a release that came over the transom:
". . . Co-sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores, Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.
The battle against those who would remove materials from libraries, schools, and bookstores-- and now, the Internet-- continues, and in many areas has escalated. Through the participation of thousands of bookstores and libraries across the country, millions of Americans learn about the critical importance of free expression and of the perilous threats to First Amendment rights that exist in our country today.
Banned Books Week draws attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society. The message goes beyond the freedom to choose and to express one's opinion; the message of Banned Books Week is the importance of ensuring the availability of viewpoints, even unorthodox or unpopular, to those who wish to read them. . . . "
The picture that emerges is very loud and clear: Hands off Free Speech!
Hands off the Internet! And yet, listen to this:
* An ANA report says that President Clinton has written to Simon Wiesenthal
thanking him for his lifelong pursuit of ". . . those who have committed
crimes against humanity."
The President of the United States - no doubt so as to help his re-election
chances and to secure the Jewish vote - did the obligatory knee-bend, to
wit:
"I want to take this opportunity, on the 50th anniversary of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, to commend you and your life's work in the pursuit of justice . . . As you have often reminded us, the pursuit of justice requires more than punishment for past crimes. Our obligation to those who perished in the Holocaust includes bearing witness to acts of genocide that have occurred -- and continue to occur -- in modern times."
Amazing, isn't it? Amazing! Just amazing!
I sit here, at my keyboard, astounded at the power of Revisionism - that
it can pry loose comments of such tawdry, desperate subservience from the
supposedly most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States!
All over Europe, on national television and in every major newspaper, Simon
Wiesenthal has been de-masked as a self-promoter and a fraud. Here in America
this man is elevated to ever newer heights! What did he do in 50 years except
to stir hate and revulsion against the German people? I'll tell you here
and now. Here's what he did; we have it from the horse's mouth: According
to the World Jewish Congress in a television broadcast (Panorama, a magazine-type
show that is similar to 60 Minutes) the numbers of "war time criminals"
that Mr. Wiesenthal can claim to have helped to run down and ". . .
brought to justice," are ". . . less than ten."
In the past, he has claimed more than a thousand - as I remember it, some
1,200! On this television special, members of his own tribe, for reasons
well known to themselves, called Simon Wiesenthal a braggart, a self-promoter
and a liar!
It is still dark outside, but soon the California sun will shine. I have
in front of me a copy of the German daily, "Bild", circulation
4 1/2 million, quoting Germany's Claudia Nolte, CDU, Minister of the Department
for Youth and the Aged, referring to what hums there in my little hard drive
next to my coffee cup:
"The Internet should not be an island for special rights and the thoughtless or unscrupulous promoters to do their evil deeds."
She's right about the evil deeds of the unscrupulous promoters. She has
her targets wrong. It isn't what is posted on the Zundelsite she should
be going after. All we promote is a healthy injection of truth, sanity and,
yes, hard evidence to help create some balance in what is, and has been,
unscrupulously peddled over sixty years as "history" to benefit
the Shrill Minority!
It's like one reader wrote just recently: "Never have so many believed
so much based upon so little."
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Civilized people can talk about anything. For them, no subject is taboo. . . In civilized societies there will be no intellectual bogeys at sight of which great grownup babies are expected to hide their eyes."
(Clive Bell)