We have on our hands a big war and a small war - the big one being Kosovo, of course, and the small one our own ever-more-brutal freedom of speech repression.
I had an opportunity to watch the news last night, followed by Rivera Live, and all you see and all you hear is references to Hitler and the Holocaust. But this time, who is the aggressor?
One of my readers sums it up much better than I could, referring to the "Clinton/Blair gang":
"Has anyone else noticed that these two seem to consider the legacy of the Nuremberg farce a license to indict and hang at whim? They're chomping at the bit as though they feared the licence was about to expire."
Maybe it is? Maybe the time of reckoning has finally arrived?
The usual pattern in the Western democracies is becoming apparent - moralizing taking the place of a moral stance. NATO and U.S. officials better be careful, since Yugoslavia did not attack any NATO member, they planned an executed an aggressive war - a crime according to Nuremberg. They are also kidnapping and forcibly removing refugees against their will in Macedonia. That doesn't look so good - does it?
On the much smaller front, of course, looms the arrest of Dr. Fredrick Töben of the Australian Revisionist Adelaide Institute website. He was arrested yesterday in Germany and will be "tried" today for the ultimate politically incorrect "sin": "Defaming the memory of the dead..."
Below are two sample letters of protest, along with some contact emails for you to write and state your feelings. Please do. E-mail doesn't even cost a postage stamp! And please remember: Only the storm of letters that followed the arrest of the American writer, Hans Schmidt, got him released in the end - after five months of incarceration!
The first letter comes from David Irving, who has preceedced Toben in arrests, jail time, loss of income, character assassination etc. - the whole gamut of repression practiced in today's Germany. Few people have paid as heavily for speaking the truth as this mainstream writer has paid. Here's how he put it yesterday:
"I have received the alarming news that the Australian revisionist and publicist Dr Fredrick Toben has been arrested while visiting Germany and is being held in prison at Mannheim (the jail where Fred Leuchter was also held for many months). He was apparently visiting the notorious chief prosecutor Hans-Heiko Klein when arrested.
Dr Toben was the subject of a complaint to the Australian Human Rights commission by a Jewish community leader Jeremy Jones, who complained about Toben's revisionist Website, the Adelaide Institute. Since the Website is accessed by readers in Germany, Toben now faces prosecution by the German government under its laws for the suppression of free speech (the crime: "Defaming the memory of the dead.")
I have put a story about this outrage on my <A HREF="http://www.fpp.co.uk/online.html">Web newsletter</A>, at:
<A
HREF="http://www.fpp.co.uk/Online/99/04/Toben080499.html">http://www.fpp.co.uk /Online/99/04/Toben080499.html </A>
May I ask you please to bring this outrage to the attention of your local media, and above all to write in quiet and reasoned protest to your local German embassy or consulate. The Mannhein authorities are bringing their whole country into disrepute by this suppression of values which are taken for granted in other countries.
David Irving
London, England
Focalp@aol.com
The second letter was sent by a long-time Canadian friend and reader of the Zundelsite:
Re: Arrest of Dr. Fredrick Töben, of Adelaide, Australia
I hasten to write to you to express my complete stupefaction at learning of the arrest, in Germany, on Thursday, April 8th, 1999, of Dr. Fredrick Töben, of Adelaide, Australia. Dr. Töben is Director of the Adelaide Institute, and Director of the revisionist website of which the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is <http://www.adam.com.au/fredadin/adins.html>.
I understand that Dr. Töben was charged with something called "defaming the memory of the dead", and is held even as I write this at Mannheim Prison. According to my information, it is expected that he will be tried and sentenced on Friday, April 9th, 1999. I understand that among the German officials associated with this arrest were a Mr. (Heiko) Klein, Public Prosecutor; and a Mr. Mohr.
Sir, given these unusual circumstances I feel I must write frankly. By every indicator of civilized life, this is a brutal act that one normally associates with a Stalinist dictatorship. It can by no stretch of the imagination be the distinguishing mark of a leading European country that claims to respect free speech and human rights.
It had been my impression, during all of my adult life, that Germany had been liberated from Nazi tyranny back in April 1945. Judging by this incident, however, I must conclude that I have been grossly misinformed in my history texts. It appears that Nazi tyranny is still alive and flourishing in Germany, albeit subsisting perhaps under another name. I wish to express to you my sadness, sympathy and sorrow that this should be so. The great German people deserve so much better.
Insofar as the case of Dr. Töben is concerned, I cannot believe that your government would wish to maintain the blot which this brutalitarian treatment represents, as a permanent trademark of their reputation. Simple human decency requires that Dr. Töben be set free forthwith, with the apologies for this extremely bizarre incident that would be his due in any civilized country, and allowed to continue with his peaceful business.
Accordingly, Mr. Ambassador, I sincerely appeal to you, and to your sense of justice and fair play, to do all in your power to see to it that Dr. Töben's immediate liberation from prison as a free citizen of Australia should become a reality. <end>
Here are some places for you to complain to, compiled by a friend (I haven't had time to test them):
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* ge-embas@is.netcom.com
* Of the 10 German consulates only Miami gives an e-mail address. It is gkmiami@ix.netcom.com
* Britain, London is: mail@german-embassy.org.uk
* Canada, Ottawa, primary: 100566.2620@compuserve.com * Montreal: 106167.425@compuserve.com
* Nova Scotia: achapman@coxhanson.ca
* Toronto: 106167.430@compuserve.com
* Vancouver: 106167.431@compuserve.com
* Alberta: FWKoenig@compuserve.com
http://www.germany-info.org/embmain.htm (US embassy site) does not list one in Australia.
You may also send formal letters to:
Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder
c/o Frau Duda
D-53113 Bonn 1
Germany
Tel: 011-49-228-560
Fax: 011-49-228-56-2357
German Embassy
4645 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
Tel: 202-298-4000
Fax: 202-298-4249
Chief of the Communications Section
United Nations Office at Geneva
Centre for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
CH-1211
Geneve, Switzerland
Tel: 41-22-917-3378
Fax: 41-22-917-0123
Pierre Sane, Exec. Dir.
Amnesty International
1 Easton Street
London, WCIX 8DJ
United Kingdom
Tel: 011-4471-413-5500
Fax: 212-972-0905
Human Rights Watch
Attn: Gary LaMarche
485 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-972-8400
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Thought for the Day:
"The Holocaust stands as Western civilization's greatest failure . . . Achieving our quest of a "new world order" depends on our learning the Holocaust's lessons."
Ian J. Kagedan, Holocaust lobbyist and one-time (?) director of government relations for B'nai Brith Canada.
(As published in "Memory of Holocaust central to new world order ", Toronto Star | November 26, 1991)