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.

***

[Petronski]

A very good rant.

[Velveeta]

Response I received from Tim Sumner founder with Debra Burlingame of:

http://www.911familiesforamerica.org/Comments.asp?id=1&

---

Thanks for writing.


The key things to do now are passing the word to those you know and to
write, email or call those links I place on my website.

The volume of mail and calls is more important than long letters and
calls.

Just say it to them. They'll be looking to see if this is a hiccup of
wind or a storm. Help make it the latter.

Tim Sumner, webmaster

[Velveeta]

Come ON FReepers!

Let's get on it.

Please write, fax or call:

International Freedom Center
120 Broadway, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10271

Fax
(212) 336-6727

E-mail
contact@ifcwtc.org

---

Contact LMDC

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10006
Phone: (212) 962-2300
TTY Phone: (212) 962-0045
Fax: (212) 962-2431/33

---

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)

FAX (212) 788-2460

E-MAIL:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

---

To Write To The Governor:
Governor George E. Pataki
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

518-474-8390

To Email The Governor:
Click here to email the Governor.
http://www.state.ny.us/governor/

[Velveeta]

I loved this response to the Wall Street Journal article!

Build It Saudi Arabia
C. Swensen - Pittsboro, N.C.

The memorial at Ground Zero, to be effectively about what happened there, must be site specific and it would be helpful if it included some little odd thing about the 3,000 people, including the firefighters and police, who died there, as part of the main event. The IFC believes a memorial to freedom and man's inhumanity to man is essential? Fine. Build it in Saudia Arabia. Without U.S. tax money.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/responses.html?article_id=110006795

[Velveeta]

Hah!

Another great response at the WSJ:

Try Tehran
Robert Bove - Brooklyn, N.Y.

My suggestion for Mr. Tofel and his supporters is to show some real courage and build their "International Freedom Center" in Damascus or Teheran. The effort might help him define freedom--and pronto.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/responses.html?article_id=110006795

[kcvl]

Thanks.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Thank you.

I needed to get it off my chest, so to speak.

[CitizenM]

BTTT

[blackie]

Hang 'em High ~ Bump!

[Jason Pappas]

Damn right, let's blast these guys with letters of outrage. I've done it. I'm also spreading the word on my blog: http://libertyandculture.blogspot.com/2005/06/bloombergs-moment-of-truth.html
Those of us in NYC should get on Bloomberg's case - he's up for relection. Pataki thinks he's a Presidential hopeful - tell him what he needs to do to keep that dream alive. This was an attack on America and we all need to demand a respectful memorial.

[Velveeta]

Some great updates today here:
http://takebackthememorial.org/

Thanks for helping to spread the word!

[Feiny]

Wow, this is the first I have heard of this...I am truly shocked & very offended.

[Calpernia]

All is becoming quiet. Press has gone away and we await Pataki's lastest response:

http://www.911familiesforamerica.org



Friday, June 24, 2005, 6:00 a.m. EDT

Dear Governor Pataki:

Please have someone on your staff check when it is was those currently in charge of the memorial at Ground Zero were appointed. And while they check, please have them find out who was responsible for placing them in charge of the World Trade Center's memorial in the first place.

The New York Daily News reports that "The Drawing Center" will be "at the heart of the site, in a building that would also be occupied by the International Freedom Center, a museum designed to commemorate man's march toward liberty." The people in charge there "have given space there to a SoHo art gallery called The Drawing Center" whose catalogue "features such artistic creations as: The infamous hooded Abu Ghraib figure, the wires falling from his wrists to arrange themselves into the word "Liberty.""

If the powers that be at the LMDC, WTC Foundation, and IFC are allowed to continue with their plans, this will get worse. Much worse.

This happened on your watch, Governor Pataki. You've been busy beyond what any of us could possibly have imagined on September 10, 2001. Now that you have an inkling of what's going on, will you stop this desecration or allow it to continue?

Governor Pataki, please send the folks downtown responsible for this a message to start cleaning out their desks.

[Velveeta]

Pataki is the #1 man to pressure on this at the moment.

His son has just become a Marine.

[Calpernia]

I sent Debbie an email about this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1428902/posts?page=1123#1123

[Velveeta]

Great!

[mware]

It will serve as the primary "gateway" to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete.

CONCRETE, what the hell, not even marble?????

[Velveeta]

No marble.
Must save the $$$$ for the "Blame America First" museum.

[mware]

This is going to cost me a couple Our Fathers and Hail Mary's this afternoon.

[mware]

I wish Brian would have decked the b@st@ard.