Dialog International

Her Father the Conspiracy Theorist

Conspiracy theorists spread a lot of misery in the world.  But can you imagine growing up as the child of a conspiracy nut?  The daughter of the conspiracy theorist behind the 9/11 Truther site - Alles Schall und Rauch (loosely translated as "It's all smoke and mirrors")  writes about her father and how his craziness affected her childhood:

Mein Vater betreibt seit zehn Jahren einen der größten Verschwörungstheorie-Blogs im deutschsprachigen Raum. Mit durchschnittlich fünfzigtausend Zugriffen jeden Tag (gemäß Klickstatistik auf ASR über hundertachtzig Millionen Zugriffe seit 2007) ist „Alles Schall und Rauch" eine einflussreiche Plattform und gilt als Einsteigerforum in die Truther-Szene.

("For ten years my father has been running one of the biggest conspiracy blogs in the German speaking region. On the average he gets 50,000 clicks each day (over 180 million since 2007).  Alles Schall und Rauch is one of the most influential platforms and is seen as the entry point into the Truther scene. ")

She writes about how her father was/is highly intelligent, but suffered from excessive mood swings.  Still, after moving to Switzerland he was able to build a successful software company.  Things only began to go off the rails after September 11, 2001:

9/11 war ein Wendepunkt für ihn—wie für viele Verschwörungstheoretiker. Er hat angefangen, Informationen zu sammeln, zu vergleichen und nach Spuren von Ungereimtheiten zu suchen. Damals war ich zwölf Jahre alt und die Ehe meiner Eltern lag bereits in den Brüchen.

("9/11 was a turning point for him - as it was for many conspiracy theorist. He began to collect information, to compare and look for inconsistencies. I was 12 years old at the time and my parent's marriage was  already in shambles.")

Shortly after that, the father, Manfred Petritsch ," or rather "Freeman" (his blog name) went off the deep end: his wife left him, his software business collapsed.  He would retreat into his room and spend days on the Internet, researching "inconsistencies".  Finally he emerged with his theory of the New World Order (NWO) and the makings of a successful conspiracy blog,

Die NWO (New World Order) ist für die Truther ein Plan, den elitäre Kräfte wie zum Beispiel die Rothschild-Familie umsetzen, um die Erdbevölkerung auszubeuten, dumm zu halten und schlussendlich zu dezimieren (in dem sie Menschen homosexuell machen oder über vermeintliche Impfstoffe Krankheiten verbreiten). 

("For the Truthers, the NWO is a plan that is being carried out by elite powers- such as the Rothschild Family, in order to exploit the global population, keep them stupified and then finally to eliminate them altogether (by making people homosexual, or spreading disease through immunizations.")

The girl was completely indoctrinated by her father's nutty theories, taught to hate the United States and Israel ("USreal") and was dragged to numerous conspiracy enthusiast events, where fans of her father would revel in Holocaust denial and rage against the Jews: "Die Juden sind das wahre Übel dieser Welt."

It was only after leaving home and undergoing several years of psychological counseling did the daughter realize how much damage her father had inflicted on her. Today she has pretty much limited her contact with her father and is ashamed that she bought into his crazy theories.  She now realizes how harmful these conspiracy theories are:

Wie viele subversive Gruppen aus dem rechten Lager, holen sich die Truther meistens Leute aus schwierigen sozialen Verhältnissen ins Boot. Menschen, die froh über Sündenböcke sind und in eloquenten Persönlichkeiten Führung suchen. Die Truther bestreiten eine Zugehörigkeit zum rechten Lager zwar vehement, jedoch sprechen meine persönlichen Erfahrungen für sich. Sexismus, Homophobie und Rassismus sind genauso verbreitet, wie eine fehlgeleitete Vorstellung von Kultur und Heimatliebe.

("Like many right-wing subversive groups the Truthers succeed in getting people on board who come from difficult social circumstances.  People who are looking for scapegoats and are looking for leaders in eloquent personalities.  The Truthers would vehemently deny that they beolong to the far right, but, based on my own personal experiences their views speak for themselves: sexism, homophobia, and racism are just a widely promoted as a distorted view of culture an love of the homeland.")

Today Alles Schall und Rauch is more popular than ever.

Related posts: High Number of German 9/11 Truther Sites Reflects Resurgent Anti-Semitisim

                            The Rothschild-Federal Reserve Bank Conspiracy Explained

Harmful Impact of Consipiracy Web Sites on German Youth

I just returned from spending a week in South Florida, where the predominant languages one hears are English, Spanish and German.  Spanish, because of all the immigrants from Mexico and Latin America who come to the United States to build a better life for their families. German, due to the thousands of German tourists who love the sun, beaches and hospitality of Florida. 

These tourists from Germany evidently haven't read Wolfgang Bittner's recent book Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA ("The Conquest of Europe by the US") where he describes the United States as a "horror scene":

Spätestens nach dem 11. September 2001 ist eine Schranke der Rechtsstaatlichkeit gefallen. Die US-amerikanische Gesellschaft ist zerrüttet, ihre Regierung schon lange nicht mehr in der Lage, Wohlstand für die Mehrheit zu schaffen und Gerechtigkeit für alle möglich zu machen.Unfassbar hohe Mordzahlen, ein gigantisches Drogenproblem, ein marodes, völlig überteuertes Gesundheitssystem, eine kaputte Infrastruktur, Schulen, die den Namen nicht verdienen, offener Rassismus, unkontrollierte Polizeigewalt, ganze Bevölkerungsschichten, die außerhalb der Armee kaum noch eine Perspektive haben – dies alles vor dem Hintergrund einer Staatsverschuldung, die niemals abgetragen werden kann. Ein Horrorszenario.

(Ever since September 11, 2001 the United States is no longer a nation under the rule of law. American society is dysfunctional, its government is no longer capable of providing prosperity for the majority and justice for all.  Incredibly high murder rate, a huge drug crisis, an ailing, expensive healthcare system, a broken infrastructure, schools not worthy of the name, open racism, uncontrolled police violence, broad spectrum of the population without any future outside of the military - all of this with the backdrop of a national debt that can never be repaid.  A horror scene.)

Nor are these tourists readers of the anti-American conspiracy site NachDenkSeiten, where the editor-in-chief Albrecht Müller sees the United States as the source of all misery in the world ("Der Tod kommt aus Amerika.").

But what about the regular readers of the dozens of German conspiracy sites such as NachDenkseiten, Hintergrund, Kopp Verlag, Junge Welt, etc.?  Sometimes there can be tragic consequences.

The journalist Jana Simon has a fascinating piece in Zeit Magazin about a young man from Saxony who left his typical German middle-class family to join the Islamic State Jihad ISIS in Syria (Jana Simon, Der Junge, der in den Krieg ging ("The Boy Who Went to War").  Simon, the granddaughter of Christa Wolf, spent hours interviewing "Samuel" - the young man -, his parents and friends in an effort to understand what would motivate a teenager to join a terrorist group with a murderous ideology such as ISIS.  

One interesting passage from Simon's long piece describes how Samuel and his best friend Max (who later perished in Syria) would carefully read the conspiracy Web sites:

Mit Max redet Samuel auch über den 11. September, ob die offizielle Version des Anschlags so stimmen könne, über chemtrails, Kondensstreifen der Flugzeuge und deren Chemikalien, die die Menschheit angeblich vergiften. Sie lesen Websites wie "Orwell-Staat", die "Nachdenkseiten" und Compact, das Magazin von Jürgen Elsässer, dem Polit-Aktivisten, der stets Verschwörung wittert. In der Welt dieser Seiten werden Politiker ausschließlich von Konzernen gesteuert und von Lobbyisten getrieben. Die Massenmedien lügen und sind Marionetten der Mächtigen, hetzen gegen Russland und Putin, die Palästinenser und den Islam. Das Königreich des Bösen aber sind die USA. Wer längere Zeit auf diesen Seiten verbringt, fühlt sich danach angeschlagen. Es gibt tatsächlich vieles, was man kritisieren kann an Medien, Politik und den USA. Es gibt Heuchelei, Lügen, und es gibt Interessen. Aber in der Welt dieser Seiten gibt es kein Grau. Jeder Zwischenton ist durch eine Meinung ersetzt. Zufälle existieren nicht, stets wird ein Komplott vermutet. Samuel verliert sich in diesen Theorien.

("Samuel would talk with Max about Sept. 11, whether the official version of the attack was true, about Chemtrails - patrols of aircraft spraying chemicals to poison people. They read Web sites like "Orwell-Staat", NachDenkSeiten and Compact, the magazine of Jürgen Elsässer, the activist whose always uncovering new conspiracies.  In the world as described in these sites, all politicians are controlled by corporations and lobbyists.  The mainstream media reports nothing but lies and are marionettes of powerful people, they attack Russia and Putin, Palestinians and Islam. But the United States is the Kingdom of Evil. Whoever spends much time with these sites will soon feel under attack.  To be sure, there is much to criticize about the media, the political situation and the US.  There is hypocrisy, lies and interests. But the world in these pages has no gray area. Every nuance is replaced by an opinion. Chance doesn't exist - everything is a conspiracy.  Samuel loses himself in these theories.")

Congratulations to Albrecht Müller, Udo Ulfkotte, Jürgen Elsässer, Wolfgang Bittner, Knut Mellenthin and all the other conspiracy theorists with popular Web sites.  Your words seem to be having an effect on impressionable young people.

German Anti-Americanism: The Charlie Hebdo Truthers

The Islamist gunmen who killed the cartoonists and police officers in Paris were still at large when the conspiracy theorists on the German left and right began pointing the finger at the United States.  For a deed this well-executed could only have been engineered by the CIA. 

First up was Albrecht Müller of the left-learning influential blog NachDenkSeiten, who sees the terrorist attack as a continuation of the evil deeds of the "Geheimdienst" - the NSA and CIA - who,of course,  also engineered the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.  His proof?  The treatment of Edward Snowden:

Da blieben bei mir echte Zweifel. Seinen Vorstellungen über die Rolle der Geheimdienste in unserer Welt kann ich immer mehr folgen, je mehr wir davon hören, was NSA überall auf der Welt tut, wie die USA mit einem Mann wie Snowden umgehen und mit anderen Whistleblowern.

To buttress his Truther arguments, the Social Democrat Müller links to a letter by the right-wing Pegida organizer and conspiracy theorist Ken Jebsen.  

Jebsen's letter is masterpiece of conspiracy theory, encompassing everything from the 9/11 attacks, the shooting down of MH17 in the Ukraine, to the attacks in Paris: it was all coordinated by the CIA under orders of Big Capital.   You see, the French daily Le Monde is partially owned by a senior executive of Lazard, a (Jewish-backed) US investment back, while its rival paper - Le Figaro - is owned by the military contractor Dessault, which is itching for a war with ISIS (as well as with Russia). Of course, the American's staged the Paris attacks so that everything could be captured on video - just like 9/11:

"Der Anschlag von Paris war, genau wie der in NYC, in einer Form dargeboten, die perfekt geeignet ist, um sie im TV zu zeigen."

Jebsen would like to rename the Monday "Pegida" marches in Dresden as "Pegada", since he views the "Amerikanisierung" of Europe as far more dangerous than "Islamisierung". 

The fact that NachDenkSeiten - which I once respected for its economic analysis - links to a neo-fascist conspiracy nut like Ken Jebsen is very sad.

The "journalist" Gerhard Wisnewski of the Kopp Verlag, asks the question in connection with the Paris attacks "Wem nutzt es?" (Who benefits?) The answer to this question is obvious:  The American Empire:

Ein gegen den Islam geeintes Europa ist exakt der Baustein für ein Weltreich von amerikanischen Gnaden, wie es den USA vorschwebt. Mehr oder weniger offensichtlich ist Europa zwar bereits ohnehin ein Vasall der Vereinigten Staaten, aber die politische Einigung muss noch einen großen Schritt vorangetrieben werden.

The Paris attacks are just another milestone for the grand American strategy of transforming Europe into a totalitarian state controlled, of course. by American interests.  Interestingly, he links the Paris attacks to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing -which was also coordinated by the US government. 

Knut Mellenthin, writing in the left-wing daily Junge Welt, is a bit more subtle in spinning his Charlie Hebdo conspiracy.  He finds it very suspicious that all three terrorists were killed before they could be interrogated, and implies that they were somehow influenced or guided in their actions by French and - you guessed it - American authorities who had infiltrated their Islamist group:

Die Geschichte der drei getöteten Männer liefert eindeutige Beweise für die hochgradige Unterwanderung islamistischer Strukturen und potentieller krimineller Kerne durch Frankreichs Polizei und Geheimdienst, möglicherweise zudem auch durch ausländische Dienste. In den USA standen die Kouachi-Brüder auf der Liste der Personen, die nicht einreisen dürfen.

"Trutherism" - whether in connection with Charlie Hebdo, MH17, 9/11, or the Boston Marathon bombing - will always be a central component of both left-and right-wing anti-Americanism in Germany.

Junge Freiheit, Politically Incorrect endorse Mitt Romney

While Barack Obama remains relatively popular in Germany, some of the media outlets on the right have expressed support for Mitt Romney.  The Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit, mouthpiece of the neo-fascist "Neue Rechte"  (New Right), chastises fellow Germans for their pro-Obama sentiments: 

Aus den heimischen Medien wurden sie fast nur über „Pleiten, Pech und Pannen“ Romneys aufgeklärt. Eine ernsthafte Auseinandersetzung mit dem Republikaner und seinem Programm suchte man zumeist vergebens. Konservativ und irgendwie rückständig, dieses Bild wurde vermittelt. Dabei spricht auch aus deutscher Sicht viel für den Republikaner. [...]Trotzdem geben 90 Prozent der Deutschen an, sie würden Obama wählen. Sie kennen den Scherbenhaufen nicht, den er nach vier Jahren hinterläßt: hohe Arbeitslosigkeit, Armut und Rekordpreise für Energie. Für die Deutschen bleibt Obama dagegen der ewige Popstar und Friedensnobelpreisträger, der irgendwann mal eine Rede an der Siegessäule gehalten hat. (ho)

(The German media only reports on Romney's "bankruptcies, bad luck and gaffes". There is no serious discussion of the Republican and his policies.  They just project the image of him as conservative and somewhat backward-lookig. But Romney has much to offer Germany....Still, 90% of Germans say they would vote for Obama.  They don't know the wreckage he has left behind after four years: high unemployment, poverty and record-high energy prices. For Germans Obama is still the eternal popstar and Nobel Prize-winner who once gave a speech at the Berlin Victory Column.)

Not to be outdone, the "pro-American" hate blog Politically Correct - one of the most popular German blogs in terms of daily hit volume - recently attacked President Obama and Hilary Clinton for their criticism of the crude anti-Islam YouTube video that led to a spasm of violence across the Middle East:

Die randalierenden und marodierenden mohammedanischen Araber haben bestimmt nicht daran gedacht, aber sie helfen dem Republikaner Mitt Romney dabei, Präsident zu werden. Wir würden uns freuen!

(The rampaging and marauding Mohammedan Arabs were certainly not intending to, but they are helping the Republican Mitt Romney win the presidency.  We would be delighted!) 

I'm still waiting to see who the neo-Nazi NPD will endorse once they realize that their friend David Duke is not on the ballot this year. 

German Officials Investigate "Catholic" Hate Site

The holocaust denial site kreuz.net has finally attracted the attention of German authorities.  As I've previously posted, the owners and operators of this site are anonymous and the content clearly violates German law with respect to incitement ("Volksverhetzung").  Now the Verfassungsschutz (Office for the Protection of the Constitution) is investigating the site, which routinely spreads hate against gays and lesbians as well as Muslims, Jews, democrats, and essentially all non-Catholics. 

Joachim Frank discusses the actions of the Verfassungsschutz in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger:

Diese ganze Camouflage ist jetzt ein Fall für den Verfassungsschutz geworden. Und da gehört sie auch hin. Denn die Art, wie die namenlosen kreuz.net-Macher Andersdenkende verunglimpfen, beleidigen, mit Schmähungen überziehen und gegen Werte wie Toleranz und die Einhaltung demokratischer Spielregeln hetzen, widerspricht nicht nur jedem Anstandsgefühl, sondern verletzt Gesetze und Grundnormen, etwa den besonderen Schutz von Minderheiten.

(This entire camoflage has become a case for the Verfassungschutz.  And that's where it belongs. For the way these nameless kreuz.net-operators vilify and insult, heap scorn on those with different beliefs and incite hatred against values such as toleranz or democratic priniciples stands in opposition to not just to common decency, but also violates laws and basic norms, such as protection of minorities.) 

My sense is that the Verfassungsschutz is basically incompetent and will not succeed in determining who is behind kreuz.net, much less shut it down.

Here's a tip:  kreuz.net is hosted in the United States by Chicago-based Steadfast Networks, a company which hosts a number of anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial sites. The officials in Germany can simply call up the CEO, Karl Zimmerman (tel. 312-602-2689).  He may be more receptive to their concerns, but I doubt it:  doing business with Nazis and other hate groups is simply too profitable.

Shutting Down 'Nürnberg 2.0'

A reader (Strahler 70) complains that all of the German right-wing extremist blogs are "based" in the United States. It is true that many of the extremist hate blogs such as Politically Incorrect are hosted on servers in the US. The owners and operators of these blogs - often anonymous - are taking advantage of the First Amendment rights of free speech protected under the US Constitution.  Hate speech, Holocaust-denial, glorification of the Third Reich, etc. are all illegal in the EU, but are allowed in the US.  For anyone who wants to understand the background here I highly recommend Anthony Lewis' book Freedom for the Thought that we Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment. 

Still, as much as I admire the power of the First Amendment, I am mindful of the awful abuse that takes place on the Internet.  The right-wing terrorist Anders Behring-Breivik was inspired to kill 75 teenagers by many of these Web sites that are located in on servers in the US.  Individuals have the right to shout that President Obama is a Muslim Communist  or that Auschwitz was a hoax but businesses - in this case, the Web hosting services providers - have a moral obligation to ensure that their products are not hurting people or advocating violence.  Here is where it becomes difficult: large companies such as Google and Yahoo! make an effort to delete content that glorifies Nazis, but they are global enterprises that operate in the EU countries.  Most hosting companies are small businesses that have no international business, so the only concern is that they do not violate the laws of the United States.  They have no problem in doing business with Web sites that seek to circumvent German or EU laws.

Case and point is the extremist Web site 'Nürnberg 2.0'.  This site was established to target and intimidate writers, filmmakers, and politicians who support a liberal and multicultural society in Germany. The anonymous operators of Nürnberg 2.0 chose named the site in an effort to equate advocates of an open society with those accused of engaging in mass murder at the Nuremberg Trials.  Presumably these public figures in the Federal Republic also deserve the same fate of those found guilty (a number were hanged): 

Vor dem Attentat in Norwegen hätte man dieses Internet-Forum wohl kaum bemerkt. Da Breiviks Anschlag aber gerade den sogenannten "Wegbereitern einer islamischen Kolonisierung Europas" galt, beunruhigt die Webseite. Einige dieser vermeintlichen Wegbereiter meinen die -Macher bereits ausgemacht zu haben: Innenpolitiker Dieter Wiefelspütz, SPD, ist genauso am Pranger wie Außenpolitiker Ruprecht Polenz, CDU. Man findet Renate Künast von den Grünen, den Filmemacher Fatih Akin oder den Spiegel-Journalisten Erich Follath. Unter dem Stichwort 'Linksextremisten' steht auch der Name von Dirk Stegemann. Der ist Sprecher einer Berliner Bürgerinitiative, die sich 'Bündnis Rechtspopulismus stoppen' nennt.

(Nobody noticed this Internet Forum before the terrorist attacks in Norway.  But since Breivik's attack was directed at the "trailblazers of an Islamic colonization of Europe" the Web site is disturbing. The operators have already identified a number of these "trailblazers": Dieter Wiefelspütz if tge SPD is targeted along with the CDU foreign policy expert Ruprecht Polenz. You can also find Renate Künast of the Green Party, the film director Fatih Akin and the Spiegel journalist Erich Follath.  Under the category of "left-wing extremist" we find the name Dirk Stegemann, who is the speaker of a citizens group in Berlin: "Alliance to Stop Right-Wing Populism") 

 Nürnberg 2.0 is hosted in the United States by GoDaddy, the largest hosting company in the world with US$800 million in revenue. GoDaddy was acquired last summer by the Heuschrecken Leveraged Buyout group KKR for $2.25 billion.  I also use GoDaddy for my business, and I wrote to Luke Hintze in GoDaddy's Public Relations department to ask why his company would do business with a hate site that targets public individuals in Germany.  I received the following response:

GoDaddy.com does not allow illegal content on our customer's websites.However, as a hosting provider, it is not our place to determine if the site you have mentioned is actually engaging in illegal activities.

GoDaddy.com regularly works with courts and law enforcement from the local to the international level. If you suspect any of our customers are using their website to engage in any illegal activities, please help us by contacting your local law enforcement agency, and request them to investigate this situation.

(Luke can be reached at [email protected].  I urge people to contact him, since nothing changes a company's behavior like unwanted public exposure)

Apparently nothing can be done until the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) - the Federal Criminal Police Office - takes its job seriously and works through the German embassy in Washingto DC to exert pressure on GoDaddy and the other service providers to shut down these sites.  So far, the BKA has declared that Nürnberg 2.0 is "harmless" (unbedenklich).  Will it take another Breivik-style tragedy for the BKA to act?

 

Politically Incorrect blog finds an American partner

Two journalists for the Berliner Zeitung -Jörg Schindler and  Steven Geyer - have done some "behind the scenes" investigation into Germany's most popular, and most notorious, blog Politically Incorrect.  What they reveal is disturbing: the blog, which stirs up hatred against Muslims in Germany, maintains ties to  the mainstream political parties in Germany, and also to well-known writers and public figures such as Henryk Broder.  On its banner, PI proclaims that it is "pro-amerikanisch", but it is clear that it is pro-American as long as the Americans are white, male, and bigotted.  Schindler and Geyer detail how the blog's founder, Stefan Herre, has reached out to some Americans to forge a trans-Atlantic axis of hate:

Auch nach Amerika hat das PI-Team längst seine Fühler ausgestreckt. Am 5. April 2011 ließ Herre per Mail wissen: "Ich stehe seit ein paar Wochen in ständigem Kontakt zum amerikanischen Pastor Terry Jones." Jones, Sprecher einer obskuren christlich-fundamentalistischen Gruppe namens "Stand Up America!", sorgte im Herbst 2010 weltweit für Aufsehen, als er ankündigte, öffentlich den Koran zu verbrennen. Auf der Suche nach einem Partner, der ihm ein europäisches Forum bieten könnte, stieß er auf PI. Dessen Macher Herre bot hocherfreut an, einen Jones-Auftritt in Deutschland zu organisieren.

(For some time the PI team has been putting out feelers to America. On April 5, 2011 Herre revealed in an e-mail: "For several weeks I've been in constant contact with the American pastor Terry Jones."  Jones, the leader of an obscure Christian fundamentalist group called "Stand Up America", made headlines in the fall of 2010 when he announced that he would burn the Koran in public. When searching for a partner that would provide a platform for his views in Europe he came upon PI.  The founder of PI, Herre, was delighted to make an offer to organize an appearance by Jones in Germany.)

Terry Jones is no stranger to Germany.  For years he ran a Christian cult in Cologne, but was forced to flee when German officials began investigating physical abuse and financial irregularities.  Jones found a welcoming  new home in the Tea Party bastion of northern Florida. 

Friedrich: End Internet Anonymity

I've written about this before.  Right-wing hate blogs are filled with violent content authored by anonymous contributors. We don't know for sure who owns and operates Politically Incorrect, Germany's most popular and notorious hate blog and the hundreds of commenters who spew out hate on the site day and night are all anonymous.  Nor do we know the names of the individuals behind the Holocaust denial site kreuz.net - they are too cowardly to reveal their real identities.  Anonymous hate has always been a feature of the Internet, but the issue has taken on a new urgency with the recent events in Norway, where a crazed right-wing fanatic gunned down scores of young people after years of following (in part) anonymous hate sites on the Web. 

Now Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has lashed out against anonymous hate on the Internet: 

The fundamentals of law and order "must also apply to the Internet," the minister told the German news magazine Spiegel. Friedrich claimed that it would be useful if individuals were forced to make their arguments publicly, rather than anonymously.

Friedrich argued that the Internet was leading to a new breed of radicalized lone individuals about whom security authorities were becoming increasingly concerned.

"There are more and more people who isolate themselves from their social surroundings and disappear into their own world on the Internet," said Friedrich.

"Once there they change, most of them without really notice," he said.

I certainly sympathize with Herr Friedrich and would like to see an end to this scourge, but it is not feasible to force peole to disclose their real identiy on the Internet without shutting the Web down altogether.  On balance, the benefits of the open Internet outweigh the dangers.  We cannot become like China or Iran in trying to control access and suppressing the truth.  Besides, Breivik - the Norwegian terrorist - never tried to hide his identity. And, as we learned in his "manifesto", many of his heroes are well-known public figures - like Robert Spencer in the US and Henryk Broder in Germany - who actively trade off their hate.

Unholy Trans-Atlantic Hateblogger Alliance

I must admit I had never heard of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff until she was invited by Pamela Geller - the doyenne of the American Islamaphobes - to speak at a conference last spring in Washington DC.  Now Sabaditsch-Wolff has been charged in Austria with incitement (Volksverhetzung) and the right-wing blogosphere in Europe is up in arms.  The bloggers are begging for support from their American blogger friends: 

 A Call to Mobilize the American Blogosphere in Support of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

We, the undersigned... have written this post jointly as a public call for our American colleagues to take up the cause of the Austrian feminist and anti-jihad activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.

Geert Wilders is well-known to most American conservative and libertarian bloggers, but Elisabeth’s case is not so prominent. Like Mr. Wilders, she faces trial for reporting factual information about Islam. Her “crime” was to conduct public seminars in which she described Islamic doctrine, quoted from the Koran, and explained to her listeners what she considers the dangers of Islam.

Like Mr. Wilders, Elisabeth has been charged with “hate speech” for her words. Unlike Mr. Wilders, however, Elisabeth is a private citizen, a wife, and the mother of a small child. She lacks the major resources necessary to defend herself against the well-funded organs of the state which seek to persecute her.

Elisabeth’s Voice calls on the American blogosphere to support Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff in her fight for the right to speak freely.

One of the "undersigned blogs" is the German hate blog Politically Incorrect. The American bloggers they are appealing too include Geller's blog Atlas Shrugs and Michelle Malkin, whose blog receives over 1 million hits a month - numbers that Politically Correct can only dream of.  Ms. Malkin is known for celebrating the shameful internmant of 200,000 Japanese-Americans during the Second World War and calling for the establishment of detention camps for American Muslims.  If Michelle Malkin answers the call from PI and the other European hatebloggers, we will see the formation of a trans-atlantic Axis of Hate. 

I am certainly against the Austrian incitement laws since they tend to make martyrs of Holocaust-deniers like David Irving and hateful fanatics like Sabaditsch-Wolff.  But since the laws are currently on the books it is worthwhile revisiting the specific charges against Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.  Some reporters attended a "seminar" offered by the Austrian fascist party (FPÖ) where Sabaditsch-Wolff instructed the attendees on the "nature of Islam":

• „Die Moslems lügen uns allen tagtäglich ins Gesicht. Es steht im Koran, dass sie das tun müssen.“
• „Mohammed hatte gerne etwas mit Kindern. Und alle Moslems sollen so leben wie Mohammed. Wenn Kardinäle Kinder vergewaltigen, tun sie das trotz der Religion – Muslime vergewaltigen Kinder wegen der Religion.“
• „Im Koran steht, dass alle, die den Islam ablehnen, getötet werden müssen. Deshalb töten Muslime.“
• „Die Muslime führen einen heimlichen Dschihad. Über Einwanderung und Geburtenrate wollen sie den Islam in Europa verbreiten.“

("Muslims lie to our faces each day. The Koran instructs them to do so. Muslims love to abuse children, just like Mohammed.  Whe cardinals abuse children they do so in violation of their religion, while Muslims rape children because their religion dictates this. The Koran says that anyone who rejects Islam must be killed. That's why Muslims kill. Muslims are conducting a secret Jihad. Through immigration and high birth rates they will spread Islam throughout Europe.")

Clearly the intent of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was to incite hate against a minority group in Austria. While this activity is illegal in Austria, it is protected in the US under the Freedom of Speech principle.  And she will be embraced as a kindred spirit here by Malkin, Geller and the many other hatebloggers in the US.  

Gudrun Eussner - Unhinged Birther

In the current political season in the US, the Republican Party has been energizing its "base" by emphasizing President Obama's "otherness".  Basically, this is an appeal to the white nationalist undercurrent of the Tea Party, but it includes accusations and insinuations concerning his faith ("Obama is a Muslim") and even his birthplace ("Obama was born in Kenya"),  The New York Times recently had a piece about the GOP's fear-mongering:

Mr. Obama’s alleged sympathy for so-called Muslim extremists who would desecrate the World Trade Center site, his socialist African ancestry and his early years in Indonesia — all of this creates a shadowy archetype that every conservative enclave (fiscal, foreign policy and religious) can find a reason to fear.

Most foreign observers are scratching their heads concerning this appeal to ignorance by a major political party, but some bloggers in Germany are consumed with "Obama derangement syndrome" and use their platform to spread bizarre conspiracy theories and outright lies about the US president. 

Gudrun Eussner is an influential blogger who is fixated on the "illegitimacy" of the democratically elected President Obama.  Loosely associated with the hate blog Politically Incorrect, Frau Eussner sees the US president as a creation of a "liberal media" that is beholden to Islamic Jihad and conscientiously suppresses the "truth" about Barack Obama.  Interestingly, Frau Eussner originally wrote for a National-Bolshevik organization where she distinguished herself with diatribes against "US imperialism".  Now she has found her true calling as a critic of Islam, but by attacking President Obama as a Muslim she can combine her anti-Americanism with Islamophobia. 

Needless to say, Frau Eussner is a huge fan of the central banker and "genetic expert" Thilo Sarrazin, who has written extensively about how the influx of "low intelligence" Turks and Arabs are "dumbing down" (Verdummung) Germany with their inferior genes.   Applying Sarrazin's genetic typology, President Obama, as the product of a white mother of German (Aryan) descent and an African father, is a Mischling ("mixed-breed").  This is especially dangerous, since Obama combines the superior intelligence of the white race with innate anti-Western predisposition of African Muslims, who recognize President Obama as one of their own.

In a recent typical article on her blog, Frau Eussner rehashes the long-discredited story that then Senator Obama went to Kenya in 2006 to campaign for his "cousin" Raila Odingo for the presidency of that country:

Man erinnere sich, daß er nach Kenia ging, um für Odingas Präsidentschaft Wahlkampf zu machen. Odinga verlor und veranstaltete einen mörderischen Aufruhr. Odinga hatte ein Abkommen mit den Muslimen, dem Land den Islam aufzuzwingen. Googlet bitte ´Obama ist mein Vetter´ "

(Remember he went to Kenya to campaign for Odinga for the presidency. Odinga lost and went on a murderous rampage. Odinga had a pact with the Muslims to force Islam on the country. Google ´Obama is my cousin".

There is zero evidence that Odinga and Obama are cousins, other than Odinga's claim (his opponent and numerous other politicians in Kenya have also claimed to be "cousins" of Obama).  Obama also never campaigned for Raila Odinga and his only contact was a 5-minute phone call.  Another claim, that "Obama's PAC donated $1 million to Odinga" has been debunked, since no such PAC ever existed. 

But for Frau Eussner, the problem is much more fundamental than having distant relatives in Kenya.  As a true Birther, she knows that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore his presidency is illegitimate. 

Es gibt Vermutungen, daß Barack Obama in Kenia geboren und die Geburtsurkunde im nachhinein in Hawaii ausgestellt worden ist. Aber Vorurteile pflegen sich eben soviel leichter, wenn sie nicht durch Wissen entkräftet werden.

Like most Birthers, Frau Eussner has no explanation for the fact that President Obama has posted his Certificate of Live Birth on the Internet (which includes the exact time of his birth) or that a birth announcement appeared in both Honolulu newspapers.  I guess she believes these announcements were placed by the devil himself, or by Kenyan Jihadists ( perhaps in concert with the devil) with the knowledge that forty-five years later he would achieve the highest office and impose Sharia law on the world.