Has Europe gone crazy?

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

-- 


  Title:  David Duke in Iran:  "Has Europe gone crazy?"

  Speech delivered at the Teheran International Convention on the Holocaust:

  [Start]

  Distinguished friends,

  Thank you Dr. Mohammadi and all the distinguished scholars who are 
here at a  conference that history shall one day deem as one of the 
most important of  the 21st century.

  I and all the conference participants must be especially thankful to 
the  President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has had the 
knowledge, the  foresight and the courage to convene this conference 
to offer free speech  for the world's most repressed idea, Holocaust 
revisionism. We must remember  that the main themes of this 
conference as stated by Iran's President are  the vital human right 
of freedom of speech and the condemnation of the  shameful 
imprisonment of European scholars and academics who simply dare to 
state their opinions of historical events that occurred over 60 years 
ago.

  This conference embraces the idea of free speech, thought, and 
conscience.  The U.S. State Department, under thorough control of 
International Zionism,  in a formal statement called this conference 
a quote, "disgrace." The real  disgrace is that free men are 
imprisoned and silenced in Europe and in other  European-descended 
nations around the world. The disgrace is that no leaders  of our own 
nations seem have the courage to defend free speech.

  I also want to thank your President for inviting me, as 
controversial as I  am, to be here. The Zionist-influenced media lies 
about me with the same  enthusiasm as they lie about him. He will be 
condemned for having me here, and I as a former American elected 
official will be condemned by the Zionist influenced press in America 
for  coming here in peace and friendship to a nation that they hate: 
the nation  of Iran.

  But, we at this conference have decided that no longer will we let 
the  Zionists dictate to us. They shall not dictate to us who will be 
our  friends, who will be our enemies, nor will we permit them to 
dictate to us  only their version of the past, and we will certainly 
not let them dictate  our future!

  Let me say from the outset that I am no disloyal American, I love my 
country  and my people, but I know that the Zionist extremists lead 
my country to  catastrophe in the Mideast and elsewhere around the 
world. I know that the  Palestinian people, the Lebanese people, even 
the American people have been  sacrificed on the altar of the 
Holocaust. It is the chronic media and  government playing of the 
Holocaust that has blinded our eyes to new  holocausts and new 
outrages.

  As a truly patriotic American I oppose Americans being killed or 
maimed by  the thousands in Iraq in a war not for America, but for 
Israel. I am here  because I love my country and oppose those who 
lead America and the world to  ruin on behalf of Zionism. In Iraq 
too, Americans and countless Iraqis have  been sacrificed on the 
ideological altar of the Holocaust, for the Holocaust  and its 
chronic recital is used as the justification of any Israeli 
treachery or crime against humanity.

  The Zionist-influenced media in America and Europe is trying to 
mislead the  U.S. and Iran toward a war that would be catastrophic 
for your country, for  my country and for the world. Here too images 
of a Holocaust against Jews  are used to justify and promote a 
terrible war against Iran that would  constitute a new Holocaust, one 
against the Iranian people and indeed for  all of us in the world.

  I believe the people of Iran want peace, and I can tell you that the 
average  American also wants peace. This conference is based on 
freedom of speech, true freedom, not the lip  service brokered in the 
mass media. Freedom of speech will take on the  Holocaust. But, 
freedom of speech also relies on a free press. Perhaps how little we 
can trust the establishment press on the Holocaust is  illustrated by 
the lies told about your esteemed president.

  This morning, I read a story about this conference from a European 
newspaper  that stated and I quote, that Iran's President, Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad called  for wiping Israel off the map. This assertion has 
been made in literally  thousands of newspaper articles and radio and 
TV news reports.

  But, all those here know that such a translation of his speech is 
nothing  but a big lie. He never said anything of the kind. Any 
proper translation of  his speech shows that he never called for 
Israel to be quote, "wiped from  the map"! But millions of people in 
the West and around the world have heard  this so many times they 
believe it. Whatever might be the ultimate truth of  the Holocaust, 
how can we learn it from a press that repeats 5,000 times a  lie 
about your President that anyone with an Iranian-English dictionary 
can  disprove in 5 minutes? In short, their ability to sell this 
easily disproven  lie shows that the media can get away with any lie, 
even of the largest  proportions. The only way to learn the truth 
about any idea is free speech,  free discussion, and free debate.

  The conference will include academics who embrace the prevalent 
historical  conception of the Holocaust and those who have a 
revisionist view.  Revisionists question parts of the official 
Holocaust story. In some Western  nations, to diverge even slightly 
from Holocaust orthodoxy will cause an  historian to face not only a 
loss of academic career but also imprisonment.

  Right now as I speak, three names come to mind immediately. David 
Irving,  Ernst Zundel, and Germar Rudolf. These three men, scholars, 
researchers,  intellects who their opponents dare not debate, these 
nonviolent, kind and  gentle men sit behind dark prison walls at this 
very moment for simply  daring to speak their conscience, for 
expressing the world's most forbidden  opinion, the idea that the 
historical event trademarked as the Holocaust as  it is popularly 
presented, is not an accurate historical portrayal, that it  needs 
like all other events of history to be questioned, researched freely 
and constantly revised. Perhaps the hypocrisy is illustrated by 
devotion of Europe to freedom for  the vilest kinds of pornography. 
Every kind of the sickest pornography is  allowed in the Western 
world today, including pornography that delves into  the worst forms 
of sadism and masochism and the vilest degradation of women,  many of 
whom have been drug addicted and truly enslaved in what the world 
calls White slavery. Yet, these sickest, evil forms of porn are not 
only  legal in Europe, they are lucrative! Yet, if you dare to 
research and offer  a dissenting opinion about any aspect of the 
event singularly called the  Holocaust, it's off to prison for you, 
its bankruptcy for you and your  family.

  In Europe you can freely question, ridicule, and deny Jesus Christ. 
The same  is true for the prophet Muhammed, and nothing will happen 
to you, heck you  might even get to star in your own weekly TV show, 
but offer a single  question of the smallest part of the Holocaust 
and you face prison! David Irving one of the world's most famous and 
well-read historians, a  writer who many mainstream historians have 
praised as brilliant and  accurate, at this moment sits in a prison 
near Vienna, Austria for simply  stating his historical opinion about 
Auschwitz in a lecture in Austria in  1989. German researcher/chemist 
Gemar Rudolf faces years of imprisonment for  simply publishing a 
detailed forensic analysis that challenged the  authenticity of 
alleged Auschwitz gas chambers. Ernst Zundel, a resident of  Canada 
and the U.S was ripped from his wife and home because he had 
politically incorrect opinions about the events of the Second World 
War.

  I have been honored to know personally all three of these men. They 
are  kind, witty, humorous, men of family, of kindness and decency. 
None of these  men were hateful or advocated hate, none were violent 
or advocated violence,  none of these men were terrorists or 
supported terrorists, none of these men  did anything other than 
express an intellectual opinion at variance with  high priests of the 
Holocaust. All these men did was have the courage to  express their 
opinions even though they knew that by doing so everything  they held 
dear was endangered, their safety, their sustenance, their  freedom, 
but they chose their conscience and their honor, even at the risk  of 
life, that their own heart might be stilled forever. They still stood 
tall. I am not here to argue the truth or untruth of their claims, 
that is for the  other speakers here, but I am here to add my voice 
from America from free  men and women everywhere that the fact that 
these men are imprisoned is a  scandal and injustice. The whole world 
knows that imprisoning men for their  opinions is tyranny; that such 
is the opposite of everything that we mean by  the word freedom. As 
some nations of Europe jail men for their opinions,  these same 
nations boast about their supposed freedom and hold themselves  above 
many other nations they view as repressive and backward.

  Some of the brave men here today at this conference have been 
jailed, even  physically attacked, lost reputation, freedom, 
property, career, simply for  speaking their conscience. I see a 
number of them as I look in the audience.  And none of these men 
write or speak hatefully or intemperately, but how can  the world 
even know that, when they and their beliefs are repressed by 
government and media. I want to honor one of the men here for his 
sacrifices over the years in his  obedience to conscience and to 
truth, a man who has laid in a hospital bed  with his bones crushed, 
his pain-racked body burned by acid, all for doing  what his 
intellect dictated and his conscious demanded. He is Dr. Robert 
Faurisson, and we here and the world owe him a debt that we can never 
adequately repay. Lesser men would have given up and lived the quiet 
life,  but he gave his all and he still gives us his all even now. I 
would like to  ask you to stand up for him ladies and gentlemen. 
Robert Faurrison, the  best-known revisionist in the world today.

  The main theme of the Holocaust Conference is that there must be 
freedom of  speech on this subject as on all others. Free speech, 
inquiry and debate are  the only way to learn the truth on any issue. 
In prosecutions of Holocaust questioners, authorities have not 
allowed  introduction of any evidence supporting the defendant's 
claims. The courts  have even announced in their guilty verdicts that 
"The truth is no defense,"  i.e. that even if the defendant can be 
shown to be honest and accurate, and  even if his claims can be 
substantiated by physical and documentary  evidence, he has broken 
the law by simply questioning aspects of the  official Holocaust 
Story.

  I take no hard position on the historical accuracy of the Holocaust, 
I leave  that to those whose whole lives are devoted to the study of 
the issue, but I  take an unshakeable position on freedom. Obviously, 
Jews, as well as other  nationalities suffered great losses during 
the Second World War. Repression, dispossession or murder against any 
group is wrong. Revisionists don't deny that many Jews died and 
suffered greatly in the war,  they condemn any and all injustices 
done to Jews in that period.

  It must also be understood that throughout history, the historical 
treatment  of atrocities or crimes against humanity have often been 
colored by  political purposes. Throughout history some crimes 
against humanity have  been exaggerated and emphasized to justify 
political agendas or even war.  Other crimes against humanity have 
been completely ignored or downplayed.

  An example is the contrast between the crimes of National Socialist 
Germany  and that of Soviet Communism. Most researchers readily 
acknowledge that  Bolshevism imprisoned, tortured and slaughtered 
many times more people in  Russia and in Eastern Europe than even the 
high numbers alleged in the  Holocaust. Yet, the Soviet Holocaust 
receives not one-hundredth of the  attention of the Jewish Holocaust. 
Can anyone here name even a single movie  you have seen about the 
Bolshevik slaughter? Isn't it sensible to think that this disparity 
is because of the strong  Jewish influence in Western media from the 
entertainment establishment of  Hollywood to the news media centered 
in New York and across the European  world? Revisionists suggest that 
an exaggeration and saturation of the  Holocaust has been essential 
to establishment and support of the Zionist  state in Israel and that 
it offers a psychological excuse for the large  scale ethnic 
cleansing, repression, torture and genocide against the  Palestinian 
people. Revisionists argue that this vested interest of much of the 
pro-Zionist  media and pro-Zionist governments affords a danger that 
the Holocaust can be  distorted and politicized just as many 
historical crimes against humanity  have either been exaggerated or 
diminished in pursuit of political agendas. Whether the revisionists 
scholars are right or wrong is for you to decide,  not those who want 
to crush free thought and free speech.

  I and every speaker at this conference believe in freedom of speech 
on all  historical and contemporary issues. We believe in freedom of 
speech, conscience, opinion, and expression. It is the opponents of 
this conference who clearly don't believe in freedom  of speech and 
conscience. It is they who have thrown elderly men and women  into 
prison for years for simply expressing their opinions. Yet, instead 
of condemning these tyrants, the media even celebrates the 
imprisonment of human beings who dare to question. Dr. Bruno 
Gollnisch, a professor of Literature at the University of Lyon,  and 
a member of the European Parliament was convicted of Holocaust 
Denial. Speaking in Lyon, France, in October 2004, Gollnisch said: "I 
do not deny  the existence of deadly gas chambers. But I'm not a 
specialist on this  issue, and I think we have to let the historians 
debate it." He did not  contest the "hundreds of thousands, the 
millions of deaths" during the  Holocaust, but added: "As to the way 
those people died, a debate should take  place." For simply 
advocating free speech, Gollnisch was convicted of Holocaust  Denial. 
Has Europe gone crazy? Freedom of speech is important for two 
reasons. First, freedom of speech is a vital human right. It is the 
cornerstone of  all other rights, because without freedom of speech 
no one has to the right  to even freely know and learn of the 
abrogation of other rights affecting  human freedom and survival. 
That is why the American founding fathers put  freedom of speech, 
press and religion as the first and highest of the Bill  of Rights. 
Second, freedom of speech and debate are absolutely vital for the 
truth to  prevail. If one side of any controversial issue can 
suppress the voice of  opposition, we cannot arrive at the certainty 
of any truth. If academics and  citizens can be blackmailed 
monetarily and in career; if they can be  threatened with firings, 
loss of income, or imprisonment for simply  sincerely pursuing an 
historical inquiry and publishing it, how can the  truth be 
discovered?

  How does one even know the real revisionist opinion, if that opinion 
is  repressed?

  A perfect example of the biased treatment of the Western press is 
the recent  adoption of the term "Holocaust denier" to slander anyone 
who may question  any part of the complex and expansive Holocaust 
story. The term "Holocaust  denier" was created by Simon Wiesenthal 
to denote any one who dares to  question any part of his version of 
the Holocaust. To "deny" is usually  associated with an allegation of 
a personal crime. For example, "John Doe  denies that he committed 
the robbery." It has a very negative connotation.  It is not commonly 
used to denote people holding a contrary historical  opinion. In 
truth, revisionists are not deniers, they are simply questioners who 
are  being imprisoned and slandered for simply questioning with 
research and  reason this tragic period of history during the Second 
World War. The Holocaust Conference in Iran is truly about respect 
for intellectual  freedom. Iran has organized the first international 
conference dedicated to freedom  of speech and inquiry on this 
important historical matter that has so many  ramifications on the 
Mideast and many other present political realities.

  I am here in Tehran as a speaker in this conference because I am 
dedicated  to freedom of speech, conscience, and thought. I am 
honored, as are all of  you, to be here at this historic conference. 
I urge the fair-minded people of the world, before they condemn this 
conference, the Iranian President, all the speakers and me, to ask 
the  question: who are the patrons of freedom and who are the real 
deniers, the  deniers of our precious human right of freedom of 
speech!

  -Dr. David Duke

  Former member of the House of Representatives State of Louisiana, 
United States of America

  [END]