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.

***

[Velveeta]

Well said.

[Tree of Liberty]

As I understand it, Trump's idea is to have the original towers rebuilt (to current safety specs, of course), but altered in two ways. 1) build them each one floor higher, and 2) build them several yards away from the original footprints which would be used for memorials.

Here's the website for the rebuilding.

[Velveeta]

I'm READY to fight.

[kcvl]

Here is that article we were trying to read this morning on the Wall Street Journal website.

[Velveeta]

This cannot be happening.

It's happening, alright.

BUT! There's still time to stop it.

[kcvl]

These people make me sick! I can't imagine having them trash a site where 3,000 people were murdered!

[Quilla]

Thank you, kcvl!

[kcvl]

(far right)

From 1978 to 1983, Mr. Bernstein was an attorney with the Entertainment Department of the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York. In 1977-78, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein in Federal District Court in New York. Mr. Bernstein is a graduate of Yale College (’74 summa cum laude) and Yale Law School (’77), where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Mr. Bernstein has been actively involved in a number of pro bono activities. He is President of the Board of Directors of The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights; Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of WNYC Radio (New York’s public radio stations); a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committees of of The Fresh Air Fund; the Partnership for Public Service; and NYC & Company; a Board member of the Markle Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Bernstein also served as a member of the Transition Team of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

[nuffsenuff]

TROLL!!!!

[kcvl]

Get over it, the terrorists won and you guys lost.

You signed up today to take the side of the terrorists?! Why doesn't that surprise me?!

[SlowBoat407]

Hit the trail, hochimn

[Velveeta]

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.

This is a SLAP in the face of every single person who died at the WTC and those in the military who have given their limbs and lives to protect us from terrorists.

[Velveeta]

......and the horse you rode in on...

[Pyro7480]

Look like we have a troll!

No one can with stand the quad-laser! It is over now! Zot!

[Ragtop]

You're right, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Then I read the post by Hochimn. Now I'm sick and mad!

[SlowBoat407]

The space is being taken over by parasites who can't generate their own heroism or pride. Because people have wasted so much time arguing over plans, Soros and his bunch found an opening and took it. Typical socialist co-opting mechanism that undermines everything it touches.

[Howlin]

This is an OUTRAGE!

Be advised and pass it on!

[fr_freak]

Don't let a little wussy boy like that bother you. We know there are traitors, cowards, and thugs in the world. If that wussy boy ever actually met one of us in person, he wouldn't have the guts to say anything like what he posted.

[NonValueAdded]

Outrage bump.