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| Spencer Sunshine: Left Gatekeeper |
Below is the full text of a leaked letter sent by Spencer Sunshine of Political Research Associates to the Left Forum board. The letter, presumably along with pressure from Sunshine’s powerful sponsors, resulted in the cancelation of three panels that had been scheduled for this year’s Left Forum to be held June 2-4.
Here is the beginning of the email announcing the cancelation of the panels:
Unfortunately, we are writing to inform you that your panels
A) Panel Title: 9/11 Truth: Ground Zero for a Resistance Movement
B) Panel Title: False Flags: Staged, Scripted, Mass Psy-Op Events
C) Panel Title: “Terrorism”: Fake Enemies, Fraudulent Wars
have not been selected as a part of this year’s Left Forum program….
Spencer Sunshine’s letter to the Left Forum:
Dear Left Forum,
I am writing to you, on behalf of a group of NYC activists, to express our objection to a number of antisemitic conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers who appeared on the “Deep State” track” last year. The most well-known of these speakers, Kevin Barrett, bragged on the Far Right website Veterans Today that they had tricked the Left Forum into hosting their speakers.
We hope that these individuals, and those with similar views, will not be invited back to the Left Forum, and we strongly encourage the conference to develop a standardized criteria to hold speakers against and a process for vetting them.
As a former Left Forum staff member, I know that conference organizers are very busy. There are many speakers and vetting is a daunting task. However, as a professional researcher of Far Right groups and an antifascist activist, I am well aware of the damage these speakers can do to our movements if provided with an audience and organizing base—as well as the media disaster this can create for organizers of Left events. Those of us who have worked on this research believe that the speakers flagged below should not be allowed to speak on left-wing platforms—much less at a conference like the Left Forum, which presents itself, at least in part, as an academic affair. It seriously damages your credibility and is a time bomb waiting to happen.
As you may be aware, the appearance in the fall at the Brooklyn Commons of a similar Far Right antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Christopher Bollyn, resulted in international media coverage and led to a boycott of the space. The connections between the 2016 Green Party VP candidate to Kevin Barrett also led to a large amount of unwanted media attention. The Left Forum has not had to contend with similar public attention so far—despite the fact that Barrett himself spoke there.
After looking at the speaker on the Deep State track last year, we have serious objections to four of them: Kevin Barrett, Jim Fetzer, Gearóid Ó Colmáin, and Mauri Saalakhan. Track co-organizer Cathleen “Cat” McGuire also has promoted antisemites and Holocaust deniers, including playing a major role in the Christopher Bollyn incident at the Brooklyn Commons. Below are profiles of these, and other, participants in the 2016 Left Forum.
I am happy to speak with conference organizers about this matter in greater detail if needed.
Best,
Spencer Sunshine, PhD
transform6789@gmail.com
347-265-7874
[Note that different people worked on these profiles—hence the difference in formats]
Kevin Barrett is the most well-known of the group, and is an editor at the Far Right website Veterans Today, where he bragged how “9/11 truth sneaks past gatekeepers into Left Forum.” These “gatekeepers” include Soros, the CIA and the Trilateral Commission —all of which he accuse of running the major left-wing media. [www.veteranstoday.com/2016/05/20/leftforum-2]
The SPLC describes Veterans Today as having moved from being merely antisemitc into being “squarely in neo-Nazi territory.” [www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2013/01/10/veterans-today-editor-blames-newtown-tragedy-israel]
Barrett hits practically every antisemitic theme in his writing; for example in one piece he says:
“…the US dollar is not the US dollar. It’s the Zionist dollar. The US dollar is issued by the Federal Reserve, a private corporation owned by the biggest ‘American’ banks. But those banks are not really American. The leading banksters who create American dollars out of nothing, backed by nothing, are ethnically Jewish and primarily loyal to the state of Israel… The Rothschild-led bankster cartel has been occupying Palestine since 1917. And it has been occupying the USA since the Federal Reserve coup d’état of 1913. … The Zionist bankster cartel that prints our currency out of thin air can easily print enough money to
buy up virtually all major Western media. That’s why most Westerners have unconsciously accepted a pro-Israel world-view…. The banksters also have enough money to buy as many politicians as they need. That is why the US Congress and the White House are Israeli-occupied territory.” [www.veteranstoday.com/2012/11/12/now-its-payback-time-why-obama-should-bust-netanyahu-for-911]
Barrett believes that Israel is been behind 9/11 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks. He is a loud supporter of Holocaust Deniers—claiming the real problem are scholars who believe the Holocaust is real, calling this “Holocaust Denial Denial.” Whatever his real beliefs on the matter are, he goes so far as to say “I used to believe in ‘the Holocaust’,” and made a list of the “Top 10 Reasons to Be a Holocaust Denier.” [https://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/dr-kevin-barrett-holocaust-history-denial-a-clear-and-present-danger; www.veteranstoday.com/2016/10/29/top10holo]
###
Jim Fetzer is a pretty straightforward Holocaust Denier. He also believes that Mossad carried out the 9/11 attacks.
http://jamesfetzer.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-holocaust-narrative-politics-trumps.html
http://jamesfetzer.blogspot.com/2015/09/james-h-fetzer-mossad-played-crucial.html
###
Gearóid Ó Colmáin promotes wide-ranging antisemitic conspiracies and narratives.
* Colmáin considers the Syrian war , ISIS, the Charlie Hebdo attack, and the refugee crisis to be a Zionist plot. He says the “manufactured refugee crisis” is “Coercive Engineered Migration: Zionism’s War on Europe.” [www.veteranstodaylive.com/2016/01/27/gearoid]
* He calls the refugees fleeing via sea to Europe come on “Rothschild’s “Slaughter Ships.” Those who shelter them are the “tools and fools of imperialist subversion.” [http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/01/rothschilds-slaughter-ships]
* He follows traditional religious antisemitism in attacking Jews, writing that: “There is nothing particularly shocking about the Rabbinical belief that Jews are a master race for those who have studied Judaism’s ‘sacred’ book The Talmud. The book has many references to the superiority of Jews over gentiles. In fact, the Talmud even claims that Jews are, in some instances, superior to God!” [www.gearoidocolmain.org/red-star-over-bethlehem-politics-of-christmas]
* Colmáin claims, “the real source of Jewish power in the world is the liberal ‘left’ media. Trump is currently at war with that establishment.” He adds that “The ‘war on terrorism’ has been about the recruitment, training and funding of Jihadi forces to be used as false-flag terror patsies and to fight proxy wars on behalf of Zionism,” and that Donald Trump’s policies could spell the end of “Zionist world domination.” [www.gearoidocolmain.org/trump-killing-israel-kindness]
* He says Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! is guided by her interest in her “Jewish tribe,” comparing David Duke favorably to her. He says Chabad, a Jewish religious group, is key in “in promoting Jewish supremacy and talmudic dictatorship.” [www.gearoidocolmain.org/trump-question-fascism; http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/03/president-vladimir-putin-an-enigma]
###
Mauri Saalakhan has a longstanding conspiratorial take on the Jewish role in US politics and world events.
He told Press TV that: “most political leaders in the United States” are “slaves” of the Zionist lobby. U.S. presidential candidates “are going to say and do anything that they feel would put them in favor of the very powerful lobby, Jewish organizations, [and] Jewish leaders [and] institutes.”
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130501092313/http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/215088.html]
In his book Palestinian Holocaust, Saalakhan writes, “the Jewish-Zionist lobby has its inordinate influence” (p. 104). He continues, “People are scared in this country [America] to say wrong is wrong, because the Jewish lobby is powerful—very powerful.” (pp. 153–54). [www.alwilayah.info/thepalestiniansholocaust.pdf ]
In a 2012 article, Saalakhan specifically lamented the influence of Jews on the left, as well as on African-Americans: “How deeply entrenched Jewish/Zionist influence is in civil liberties and human rights organizations in America (both large and small), and how pervasive that influence also is in much of the African-American leadership psyche!” [http://dailymuslims.com/2012/05/10/a-demonstration-for-peace-in-sudan]
###
Cathleen “Cat” McGuire was a “Deep State” Track co-organizer and works as a palm reader in Times Square. She does not have a history of publishing or speaking under her own name. However, she apparently has access to some money, and is the listed contact for a non-profit called “OraLora Fund” (DBA “The Institute for Social Justice.”)
McGuire came to attention in fall 2016 when it was revealed that she had booked Far Right antisemite and Holocaust Denier Christopher Bollyn at a church on the Upper West Side, alongside Bollyn’s talk at the Brooklyn Commons, which she attended. The church cancelled the event, but in her emails to the church, she specifically said she approached them because she they were involved in Palestine activism. [www.haaretz.com/world-news/americas/1.740915]
Whatever her own politics are, McGuire is intentionally booking antisemites in left-wing circles in NYC.
###
Cheryl Curtiss, the other track organizer, is a 9/11 Truther. She does not have a history of making bigoted statements, but obviously knows what is going on and has no problems providing platforms for anti-Semites on her radio show “9/11 Wake-Up Call with Cheryl”—or bringing them into the Left Forum.
####
There are several other notable people who have appeared at the Left Forum in the last two years. They include:
Richard Dolan also spoke on the Deep State Track. Although he does not have a history of making bigoted statements, he is famous believer in UFOs. I mention this to show how ridiculous some of the speakers on this track are, and how foolish the Left Forum looks in booking them. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Dolan]
Wayne Madsen “revealed” that Obama and Rahm Emanuel were “Members of Same Gay Bath House Club in Chicago,” and that Emanuel was picked up as part of “Obama’s predatory gay sex activities.” [http://atlah.org/2010/06/10/wayne-madsen-special-report-obama-and-emanuel-members-of-same-gay-bath-house-club-in-chicago]
Dennis Speed, who spoke in 2015, put in his bio that he works for the Executive Intelligence Review, the publication of the LaRouchites. He is still writing for the paper in 2017.
Along with this, Chip Berlet and I renew our objection to LaRouchite’s former “theorist” Webster Tarpley speaking. Tarpley continues the same themes of the LaRouchites in his work.
I understand that last year the Left Forum justified Tarpley’s inclusion that he has formally left the LaRouchite organization. While this may be true, in the antifascist milieu we generally require “former” Far Right activists who want to be involved in Left politics to publicly repudiate far right groups, and apologize for their actions. In this case, Tarpley should also explain why his views are different from the bigoted views of the LaRouchites.
Tarpley has done none of these things to my knowledge. I think if he wants to be on a Left platform he needs to be held accountable for a variety of these statements, including those about the “Homintern”—the supposed gay conspiracy that controls the culture industry. The Left Forum is letting him off too easily by just letting him quit the LaRouchites when there is no sign he’s quit their beliefs. [www.researchforprogress.us/topic/8760]
**********
Kevin’s response to Sunshine accusations
April 3, 2017
|
Hello Marcus,
The accusations are slanderous…. Feel free to call me any time to discuss this.
Best
Kevin
(contact info)
|
Hello … Left Forum organizers,
Since 2005 I have done hundreds of speaking events in at least ten countries. Everywhere I go, organizers of my events are harassed by gang-stalkers like “Spencer Sunshine” who hurl the same standardized laundry-list of mindless insults, lies, and distortions in an apparent attempt to waste both my time and that of the organizers. Of those hundreds of speaking events, only one has ever been cancelled or postponed due to the gang-stalkers’ accusations, and that decision is likely to be reversed, and an apology offered, in the not-too-distant future. I will be happy to discuss the details, just call me.
Hoping to keep this brief, and thus deny “Sunshine” (and his handlers?) too much of the wasted time that is their goal, I have interspersed some bold-face comments below.
Best
Kevin Barrett (call or email me any time to discuss any of this)
(contact info)
——————————————
Dear Left Forum,
I am writing to you, on behalf of a group of NYC activists, to express our objection to a number of antisemitic [mindless, libelous insult]conspiracy theorists [equally mindless, libelous insult] and Holocaust deniers [another mindless, libelous insult][i]who appeared on the “Deep State” track” last year. The most well-known of these speakers, Kevin Barrett, bragged on the Far Right website Veterans Today that they had tricked the Left Forum into hosting their speakers. [another libelous lie – no evidence whatsoever offered to support this bizarre claim; later he misleadingly cites a satirical, pointed joke]
We hope that these individuals, and those with similar views, will not be invited back to the Left Forum, and we strongly encourage the conference to develop a standardized criteria to hold speakers against and a process for vetting them.
As a former Left Forum staff member, I know that conference organizers are very busy. There are many speakers and vetting is a daunting task. However, as a professional researcher of Far Right groups and an antifascist activist, I am well aware of the damage these speakers can do to our movements if provided with an audience and organizing base—as well as the media disaster this can create for organizers of Left events. Those of us who have worked on this research believe that the speakers flagged below should not be allowed to speak on left-wing platforms—much less at a conference like the Left Forum, which presents itself, at least in part, as an academic affair. It seriously damages your credibility and is a time bomb waiting to happen.
As you may be aware, the appearance in the fall at the Brooklyn Commons of a similar Far Right antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Christopher Bollyn, [Bollyn, a liberal Democrat, holds no racially-based views whatsoever, but occasionally critiques aspects of Jewish identity politics and culture] resulted in international media coverage and led to a boycott of the space. The connections between the 2016 Green Party VP candidate to Kevin Barrett also led to a large amount of unwanted media attention. [Right-wing Zionist media launched a failed witch-hunt against Ajamu Baraka due to his association with me; Baraka emerged completely unscathed.] The Left Forum has not had to contend with similar public attention so far—despite the fact that Barrett himself spoke there. [Media witch-hunts against me have always failed miserably, beginning with the Republican Party witch-hunt in 2006 spearheaded by Fox News and Lynn Cheney’s ACTA; so it is unsurprising that the right-wing Zionist media does not want to publicize my talks at the Left Forum. Watch Sean Hannity unintentionally promote the 9/11 truth movement by attacking me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzIzoD-MhIE ].
After looking at the speaker on the Deep State track last year, we have serious objections to four of them: Kevin Barrett, Jim Fetzer, Gearóid Ó Colmáin, and Mauri Saalakhan. Track co-organizer Cathleen “Cat” McGuire also has promoted antisemites and Holocaust deniers, including playing a major role in the Christopher Bollyn incident at the Brooklyn Commons. Below are profiles of these, and other, participants in the 2016 Left Forum.
I am happy to speak with conference organizers about this matter in greater detail if needed.
Best,
Spencer Sunshine, PhD
transform6789@gmail.com
347-265-7874
[Note that different people worked on these profiles—hence the difference in formats]
Kevin Barrett is the most well-known of the group, and is an editor at the Far Right (?!) website Veterans Today, [For better or worse, Veterans Today is associated with the Democratic Party, tendance Bernie Sanders; VT has been leading the attack on Trump since more than a year before the election, and has scooped the rest of the media in exposing Trump as a lifelong organized crime front-man] where he bragged how “9/11 truth sneaks past gatekeepers into Left Forum.” [That was a joke! But jokes often contain an element of truth, and we all know that certain sources of “left” funding don’t want critics of the 9/11 official story to be heard.] These “gatekeepers” include Soros, the CIA and the Trilateral Commission —all of which he accuse of running the major left-wing media. [www.veteranstoday.com/2016/05/20/leftforum-2] [Soros and the CIA obviously do try to steer left media, and the Trilateral Commission has provided the ideological framework for such efforts with its de facto mission statement about pushing back against the “excess of democracy” that afflicted the US in the 1960s. This is uncontroversial, obvious, and almost universally understood by literate members of the Left.]
The SPLC describes Veterans Today as having moved from being merely antisemitc into being “squarely in neo-Nazi territory.” [www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2013/01/10/veterans-today-editor-blames-newtown-tragedy-israel] [Absurd accusation – VT is the leading alternative outlet pushing back against “American Nazi” Bannon and his puppet Trump. See: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/03/30/bannon911/]
Barrett hits practically every antisemitic theme in his writing; for example in one piece he says:
“…the US dollar is not the US dollar. It’s the Zionist dollar. The US dollar is issued by the Federal Reserve, a private corporation owned by the biggest ‘American’ banks. But those banks are not really American. The leading banksters who create American dollars out of nothing, backed by nothing, are ethnically Jewish and primarily loyal to the state of Israel… The Rothschild-led bankster cartel has been occupying Palestine since 1917. And it has been occupying the USA since the Federal Reserve coup d’état of 1913. … The Zionist bankster cartel that prints our currency out of thin air can easily print enough money to
buy up virtually all major Western media. That’s why most Westerners have unconsciously accepted a pro-Israel world-view…. The banksters also have enough money to buy as many politicians as they need. That is why the US Congress and the White House are Israeli-occupied territory.” [www.veteranstoday.com/2012/11/12/now-its-payback-time-why-obama-should-bust-netanyahu-for-911] [While obviously oversimplified, the above statements have no racial animus whatsoever, and are true in their broad outlines; I will be happy to debate anyone and cite evidence supporting them.]
Barrett believes that Israel is been behind 9/11 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks. [No, I argue that a NATO program called Gladio B, in which Israeli assets and allies in NATO countries participate, is behind these and other false flag terror events.] He is a loud supporter of Holocaust Deniers—claiming the real problem are scholars who believe the Holocaust is real, calling this “Holocaust Denial Denial.” [I support the right of EVERYONE to debate and discuss historical evidence; I myself believe the holocaust is real, but that those who contest some of the details should not be persecuted or imprisoned for their efforts]. Whatever his real beliefs on the matter are, he goes so far as to say “I used to believe in ‘the Holocaust’,” and made a list of the “Top 10 Reasons to Be a Holocaust Denier.” [https://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/dr-kevin-barrett-holocaust-history-denial-a-clear-and-present-danger; www.veteranstoday.com/2016/10/29/top10holo] [Please click on the link and read the story! It is SATIRE! Sunshine lacks either discernment or a sense of humor; or he is intentionally attempting to deceive, by presenting a satirical piece with a provocative headline as if it were a serious op-ed.]
###
[i]All three terms – “anti-Semitic,” “conspiracy theorist,” and “holocaust denier” – are mindless insults with little or no cognitive content. All three have been ably deconstructed: The first in Ibrahim Soudy’s essay in my edited book
We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo; the second in the first chapter of Lance deHaven-Smith’s
Conspiracy Theory in America; and the third in Paul Viminitz’s “Holocaust Denial and Anti-Semitism” (http://ahtribune.com/world/americas/academic-freedom/1580-holocaust-denial-anti-semitism.html).
fascist crap, control the narrative.
You rock casbah, KB!
"Sunshine" doesn't sound like a Jewish name, so I'll take a leap here & guess that Spencer chose that name for himself.
And what a choice!
🙂
Sunshine is the LAST THING this character would want at his Zionist Forum.