Re: Anglo-German competition for Zionist support in WWI

Mr. Spector,

You wrote:

"It should make other members of the WSN list uneasy that this type of 
posting appears on a list with which we are all associated."

Forgive me if I inject my own opinion here, but this comes across to me as 
more of a smear than a criticism.

"I don't know anything about John Leonard."

John Leonard is the publisher of British political scientist Nafeez Mossadeq 
Ahmed's seminal book on 9/11, "The War on Freedom." This book should be the 
standard university text for any serious student of the prehistory and 
history of 9/11.

After the book was published in Italy, Gore Vidal took out a full page ad in 
a major Italian daily praising it, and it subsequently sold out the first 
two printings. Subsequent to that, one million Italians converged on Rome to 
protest the Bush administration's desire to preemptively strike Iraq.

And while working on Cynthia McKinney's last campaign, after she had 
requested through me that the 9/11 research community do all it could to 
educate the voters of Georgia's 4th Congressional District about the facts 
of 9/11, Mr. Leonard donated a case of books to the campaign and was 
supportive of my own personal efforts.

In my opinion, the single greatest way to derail the administrations plans 
for open-ended war is to expose the administration's clearly-established 
criminal negligence and probable complicity on 9/11. Mr. Ahmed's brilliant 
scholarly work has provided us with an indispensible tool to try to make 
that happen. As Leonard Lewin wrote in his political satire "Report From 
Iron Mountain":

"A more expedient reason for pursuing the investigation of alternate ways 
and means to serve the current functions of war is narrowly political. It is 
possible that one or more major soveriegn nations may arrive, through 
ambiguous leadership, at a position in which a ruling administrative class 
may lose control of basic public opinion or of its ability to rationalize a 
desired war." [Iron Mountain, P. 91]

Leonard writes that a transfer from a war system to a peace system carries 
many dangers and difficulties. But he concludes that contingency plans for a 
transfer to a peace system must be fully investigated and prepared for the 
above reason: Through ambiguous leadership, a ruling class may lose its 
ability to rationalize a desired war... and then peace could start breaking 
out all over the place whether we're ready for it or not.

This is how I see the situation we're in today. The administration is going 
to need a Gulf of Tonkin/Pearl Harbor/Operation Northwoods to pin on Iraq, 
because they HAVE lost control of public opinion. And some of the credit for 
that goes to educators like John Leonard and Nafeez Ahmed.

"If we can't criticize each other in hopes of making our work better, then, 
what is it we are trying to accomplish?"

I quite agree, and please allow me to offer my own criticism. A derogatory 
phrase like "this type of posting," sounds more like an attempt to dismiss 
Mr. Leonard's post than an attempt to improve it.

Respectfully,

Buddy Grizzard

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Alan Spector" <spectors@netnitco.net>
To: "Buddy Grizzard" <the_allfather@hotmail.com>, <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Re: Anglo-German competition for Zionist support in WWI
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 23:07:32 -0500


I don't know anything about John Leonard. I did not attack him personally. I
only said that the use of the term "hitler's excesses"  was a terrible
choice of words. It was a terrible choice of words, and I stand by my
comments.

Nothing else in my comments made any other criticism of John Leonard.
Presumably he, and Buddy Grizzard, and all others who want to help prevent
future genocides should respect a criticism in the spirit of making the
movement against genocide stronger, and more able to resist the kinds of
distracting counter-attacks from the rightwing that might occur when we do
use words inappropriately. If we can't criticize each other in hopes of
making our work better, then, what is it we are trying to accomplish?

Alan Spector


----- Original Message -----
From: "Buddy Grizzard" <the_allfather@hotmail.com>
To: <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: Anglo-German competition for Zionist support in WWI


 >
 > I know of few people who are doing more right now to prevent FUTURE
 > genocides than John Leonard. If you think he should have used the word
 > "atrocities" instead of "excesses," that's certainly a defensible 
opinion.
 > But to suggest that John is engaging in apologetics by using a milder 
word
 > than you would have preferred is simple absurdity.
 >
 > Buddy Grizzard
 > Press Secretary, Garrett for Governor, Georgia Green Party

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