The Piper

	.American Free Press
	...Volume VI. #6. February 6, 2006..americanfreepress.net

 

P. 4, AMERICAN FREE PRESS * February 6, 2006... Behind the Headlines
with Michael Collins Piper

‘Semitism’ May Be Big Issue
In McCloskey’s Race for House

By Michael Collins Piper

The fight for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 11th district of California could get ugly. “Antisemitism” may well turn out to be the key issue of the campaign, despite the fact that most voters in that district, like most voters nationwide, don’t care about the subject one way or the other.

Former U.S. Rep. Pete McCloskey — the no-nonsense 11- term congressman who repeatedly dared to take on the Israeli lobby — is attempting to make a comeback, 24 years after leaving Congress following his defeat in a U.S. Senate primary.

An attorney and rancher, McCloskey is challenging incumbent Rep. Richard Pombo for renomination in the 2006 GOP House primary.

According to local press reports, McCloskey is campaigning on issues such as “fiscal restraint, reduced government and balanced budgets.” However, he is also raising questions about Pombo’s record on the environment.

Now, Pombo’s supporters are starting to sling accusations of “anti-Semitism” against McCloskey.

PETE MCCLOSKEY

During his years in the House of Representatives, McCloskey was an outspoken critic of U.S. policy toward Israel and the Arab world and was unabashed in his support for Palestinian statehood. However, since McCloskey, a decorated Marine combat veteran from the Korean War, was generally ranked as a “liberal Republican” and was well known as a supporter of civil rights legislation and as a foe
of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, his critics were hardpressed to call him a “right wing racist.”

Nonetheless, McCloskey’s critics in the powerful Israeli lobby were quick to tag him as an “anti- Semite.” The smear campaign really heated up following a civil action he filed as an attorney against the U.S-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith. The ADL had been unmasked in a 1994 scandal as having illicitly spied on law-abiding American citizens and others and then turned the data over to the intelligence services of both Israel and South Africa.

Because South Africa was then under white minority rule, under its so-called “apartheid” regime, the ADL — which proclaims itself an enemy of “racism” — was
particularly embarrassed by McCloskey’s lawsuit, which put the focus on the fact that the ADL and its foreign principal, Israel’s clandestine services agency, Mossad, were secretly allied with the South African regime.

In the end, McCloskey and his clients forced the ADL to settle the lawsuit, which the ADL agreed to do. The well-funded ADL preferred to make a cash payment to end the affair, rather than have the spectacle of its top officials and other key assets being dragged through a public trial that would have bared the ADL’s dirtiest secrets.

Needless to say, the lawsuit against the ADL, coupled with McCloskey’s support for the rights of Christian and Muslim Palestinians, did not endear the ex-congressman to supporters of Israel, who are now rallying behind incumbent Pombo in the primary.

McCloskey had formerly represented a coastal California district near San Francisco. But he is relocating to Pombo’s north-central district, which includes the famous San Joaquin Valley.

Considering what appears to be a campaign fight that will have an “Israelcentric” focus if Pombo’s supporters have their way, Pombo himself may have some explaining to do, in light of the fact that he accepted money from corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who swindled American Indian tribes out of millions and then used the money to fund, among other things, a terrorist sniper’s school for Jewish settlers on Palestine’s occupied West Bank.

One past blunder by McCloskey may haunt his campaign. Some years ago — against the advice of friends — the ex-congressman agreed to speak before a group accused of “Holocaust denial.” His friends had advised him it was actually a “controlled opposition” front group being used by Israeli intelligence to collect names and monitor critics of Israel who attend the group’s meetings.

Although McCloskey is a fervent believer in the Holocaust and was actually booed for having said so when speaking before the group, Pombo supporters are bellyaching about the fact that McCloskey agreed to lecture there. 

. . ..A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of Final Judgment, the controversial “underground bestseller” documenting the collaboration of Israeli intelligence in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is also the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem, The Judas Goats, and Dirty Secrets, all available from America First Books and FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS. He has lectured on suppressed topics in places as diverse as Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Russia and Abu Dhabi.

 

(Issue #7, February 6, 2006, American Free Press)