The libertarian magazine, Reason, has a blog by Michael Moynihan, tracking a particular thesis on CIA complicity in the Assange rape allegations, from a neo Nazi to the twitter account of the progressive MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.
Here’s the story, in reverse.
The far Right website, Counterpunch published an article co-written by the antisemite and Holocaust denier Jöran Jermas, who goes by the name “Israel Shamir“. Anybody who has read an article by “Israel Shamir” will be familiar with his style: which is heavy on the misuse of Christian tradition for political purposes. Here’s a taster:
The bullet can always come later, once the victim has been successfully isolated by the smear campaign. The Gospels tell us that hardly anyone followed Jesus to Golgotha, though just a week earlier the people of Jerusalem hailed Him with hosannas. A Jewish anti-Gospel explains that this was the result of a successful smear campaign managed by Judas, a surprisingly modernist reading for an early medieval story.
For a smear that really sticks, you need to get it from an ex-apostle. An accusation by a Caiaphas does not impress. If you are targeting a leftist, hire leftists. For example, Trotskyites were willing and useful tools against the Communists. Pseudo Anti-Zionists are currently being used to hamstring a genuine Pro-Palestinian movement. Who are the Judases of this campaign against our Julian?
You get the picture. I’d recommend reading Shamir’s piece in its full nutty glory, complete with exhortations to read the work of Gilad Atzmon. His thesis, for what it is worth, is that one of the complainants wrote a thesis on the support group for Cuban political prisoners, the Women in White. That, according to Shamir, shows that she is a CIA agent.
Keith Olbermann came across the article, via Bianca Jagger. He was clearly hugely impressed by it, and recommended it to his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. He repeatedly urged his followers to read it.
Olbermann has effectively become a vector for the propagation of the nasty and conspiracist views of a vicious racist. This is why it matters:
The attacks on Ardin show how, with the help of a mainstream figure like Olbermann, easily falsifiable personal attacks are like a game of telephone, becoming mangled truths for the partisan shock troops. One blogger writes that it “turns out that the guy (sic) who accused him may have been a CIA agent.” Over at the Daily Kos, a “diarist” writes that “Not only is she NOT a leftie she is an extreme right wing CIA operative of some type.” That Ardin works for a left-wing political party and confesses that were it not for their accommodating policy towards Castro she would defect to the former communists (Vänsterpartiet) makes little difference. Why let the truth intervene when one can defend Assange and blame Washington in one fell swoop?
Having read the Shamir article, it is worrying that a mainstream liberal figure can’t spot “Israel Shamir” as a particularly vicious nutter. The trouble is, the article came to Olbermann via Bianca Jagger, and was carried by Counterpunch. Although I describe Counterpunch as a far Right journal, because of its repeated publishing of articles by neo Nazis and Holocaust deniers, many including Moynahan, think of it as “far Left”. So, as far as Olbermann was concerned, the theory came highly recommended by people with strong progressive credentials.
Olbermann has now found out that he may have recommended a Nazi (although he doesn’t appear entirely sure). He tweets:
“If the author of that article is a holocaust denier, I repudiate him and what he wrote, and apologize for retweeting the link.”
Good for him. However, this is how the far Right infiltrates liberal politics. The outlandish claims of “Israel Shamir” have already been recommended on the British news website, the First Post. They’ll travel a lot further, yet.
