THE SOROS-IZATION OF GROUND ZERO

Michelle Malkin ^ | June 7, 2005 | Michelle Malkin

[Velveeta]

Must-read. Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has blown the whistle on George Soros and other human rights zealots who are trying to turn Ground Zero into a blame-America monument. Her piece is up at the WSJ.com site (subscription required...also try here). Here are a few blood-boiling excerpts:

The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary "gateway" to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on "a journey through the history of freedom..."

...While the IFC is getting 300,000 square feet of space to teach us how to think about liberty, the actual Memorial Center on the opposite corner of the site will get a meager 50,000 square feet to exhibit its 9/11 artifacts, all out of sight and underground.

Meanwhile, generous space will be allotted to the International Freedom Center for exhibits on Chinese dissidents and Chilean refugees.

Burlingame reports further:

More disturbing, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is handing over millions of federal dollars and the keys to that building to some of the very same people who consider the post-9/11 provisions of the Patriot Act more dangerous than the terrorists that they were enacted to apprehend -- people whose inflammatory claims of a deliberate torture policy at Guantanamo Bay are undermining this country's efforts to foster freedom elsewhere in the world.

Who's behind this sacrilege at Ground Zero? Burlingame continues:

The driving force behind the IFC is Tom Bernstein, the dynamic co-founder of the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex who made a fortune financing Hollywood movies. But his capital ventures appear to have funded his true calling, the pro bono work he has done his entire adult life -- as an activist lawyer in the human rights movement. He has been a proud member of Human Rights First since it was founded -- as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights -- 27 years ago, and has served as its president for the last 12. The public has a right to know that it was Mr. Bernstein's organization, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, that filed a lawsuit three months ago against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was Human Rights First that filed an amicus brief on behalf of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the Justice Department believes is an al Qaeda recruit. It was Human Rights First that has called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the alleged torture of detainees, complete with budget authority, subpoena power and the ability to demand that witnesses testify under oath.

In fact, the IFC's list of those who are shaping or influencing the content and programming for their Ground Zero exhibit includes a Who's Who of the human rights, Guantanamo-obsessed world:

• Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the world-wide "Stop Torture Now" campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld's refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is "irresponsible and dishonorable."

• Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11.

• Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, "I'm not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House." This is the same man who participated in a "teach-in" at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, "The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military," and called for "a million Mogadishus." The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner's statement warning that future discussions should not be "overwhelmed" by the IFC's location at the World Trade Center site itself.

• George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib "hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself."

Concludes Burlingame: "Ground Zero has been stolen, right from under our noses. How do we get it back?"

Start by contacting NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Then Gov. George Pataki.

Learn more about Human Rights First here.

This abomination needs to be nipped in the bud. Now.

***

[kcvl]

Board of Directors


Chair

William D. Zabel
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

President

Tom A. Bernstein
Chelsea Piers Management Inc.



Treasurer

James Ziglar, Sr.
UBS Financial

Secretary

Barbara A. Schatz
Columbia University School of Law


M. Bernard Aidinoff
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Raymond M. Brown
Brown & Brown PC

Lynda Clarizio
America Online Inc

Craig Cogut
Pegasus Investors LP

Donald Francis Donovan
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

A. Whitney Ellsworth
Publishing Consultant

Kenneth R. Feinberg
The Feinberg Group LLP

Leslie Gimbel
Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel
Foundation

R. Scott Greathead
Wiggin & Dana LLP

Louis Henkin
Columbia University School of Law

Robert D. Joffe
Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP

Lewis B. Kaden
Davis Polk & Wardwell





Juliette Kayyem
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Harvard University

Kerry Kennedy
RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights

Harold Hongju Koh
Dean, Yale University

Philip A. Lacovara
Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw

Jo Backer Laird
Christie's Inc.

Robert Todd Lang

Steven R. Shapiro
American Civil Liberties Union

George A. Vradenburg
The Vradenburg Foundation

Sigourney Weaver

Chairman Emeritus
Marvin E. Frankel
(1920 – 2002)

Executive Director
Michael H. Posner

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1388699/posts
Email Contacts for Media, Government, USA, Europe, Consulates, Embassy and more for Activism

[kcvl]

Michael Posner
on the erosion of civil liberties since 9/11

Human Rights First Advocate Neil Hicks
on the Ibrahim Trial

Tom Brokaw (No bias in the media /sarcasm) Introduces the work of Saad Ibrahim
From 2002 Human Rights First Annual Human Rights Award Dinner

[kcvl]

Thank you!

[Calpernia]

Just finished emailing every one of my address books with this.

[kcvl]

I can't believe they would ruin that site for the family members! I just don't understand people like that!

[Calpernia]

These self appointed committees speaking on behalf of the families and memorial organization have not included input from families of the victims. We don't know who they are, where they came from or anything.

http://www.newyorkcitycommunity.com/WTC.htm

[Velveeta]

The evil of America is within its elected offices and in the public offices, busy at brainwashing our young.

Bought and paid for with Soros money.

[retrokitten]

BTTT

[Humidston]

Communist/totalitarian alert!

Is this still America????

I swear, my head's gonna explode!!

[Velveeta]

Quotes from the scholars and advisors of the "International Freedom Center".
http://www.ifcwtc.org/scholars.html

*International Perspective*

#1 Timothy Garton Ash:

"Garton Ash noted that he had been "alarmed by the militarization of
political rhetoric in the U.S." over the past three years and by the
fact that, under Bush, "[t]oo often, the country seems to be engrossed
in a mythic, heroic narrative of patriotic, martial prowess." In fact,
he suggested, to "win this struggle together," the United States,
European nations and other countries "need to be both strong and
wise." For Garton Ash, this means "recognizing that this is a war that
war can't win."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/09/16/worldviews.DTL

[Velveeta]

According to the New York Times, early renderings of the center's exhibit area created by its Norwegian architectural firm depicted a large mural of an Iraqi voter. That image was replaced by a photograph of Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson when the designs were made public.

Amazing, isn't it?

[Velveeta]

Fix bayonets, Freepers. Let's do this for Barabra Olson and Battlaion Chief Moran.

Dang blurry screen...

[Velveeta]

I agree.

I do wish we had the entire WSJ article.

[Humidston]

>> "....alarmed by the militarization of
political rhetoric in the U.S." <<

Umm, like what they would have called post Pearl Harbor "rhetoric" back in the '40's???

[jer33 3]

I e-mailed this to quite a few folks! Thanks for posting.

[Howlin]

Stunning is more like it.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Oooh... clever way to get by the mods :-)

[Humidston]

From your list:

Lynda Clarizio
America Online Inc

[firewalk]

Thanks Howlin