Posted on 08/26/2003 9:13:14 AM PDT by Ernie.cal
The John Birch Society has long been our country's premier purveyor of conspiratorial interpretations of past history and current events. This posting is devoted to discussing some details from FBI files which speak to the unreliability and inaccuracy of JBS data and conclusions.
In 1964, FBI Director Hoover stated that he "had little respect for Robert Welch" (founder and leader of the the Birch Society) because of Welch's defamatory comments about President Eisenhower, the Dulles brothers, Chief Justice Warren, and others. He referred to Welch and the Birch Society as "extremist" and "irresponsible".
Also see Hoover's testimony (copied below) before the Warren Commission (Volume V, page 97) when he was asked about an article on JFK's assassination that was published in the JBS magazine, American Opinion:
"Mr. Hoover: I have read that piece. My comment on it is this in general: I think the extreme right is just as much a danger to the freedom of this country as the extreme left. There are groups, organizations, and individuals on the extreme right who make these very violent statements, allegations that General Eisenhower was a Communist, disparaging references to the Chief Justice and at the other end of the spectrum you have these leftists who make wild statements charging almost anybody with being a Fascist or belonging to some of these so-called extreme right societies. Now, I have felt, and I have said publicly in speeches, that they are just as much a danger, at either end of the spectrum. They don't deal with facts. Anybody who will allege that General Eisenhower was a Communist agent, has something wrong with him. A lot of people read such allegations because I get some of the weirdest letters wanting to know whether we have inquired to find out whether that is true. I have known General Eisenhower quite well myself and I have found him to be a sound, level-headed man."
Bureau documents make it clear that, on numerous matters, the FBI thought that the Birch Society was not only wrong on substance, it also injured our society by its reckless and venomous attacks.
Here is one example:
Robert Welch and the JBS referred to author Harry A. Overstreet as a Communist sympathizer or dupe and they denounced Harry's 1958 book "What We Must Know About Communism" as being designed to insure that we did nothing effective against the Communist conspiracy. (See October 1959 Edward Janisch article in Birch magazine American Opinion which was entitled, "What We Must Know About Overstreet" for an example of how the JBS attacked and vilified a loyal American.)
In subsequent years, Welch described his campaign against Harry Overstreet as one of the Birch Society's greatest accomplishments.
What Welch did not know however, is that the FBI assisted Overstreet in writing this book! In fact, internal FBI documents refer to the book as being a useful supplement to J. Edgar Hoover's book "Masters of Deceit" and the FBI asked the American Legion to add the Overstreet book to its recommended reading list (which it did). In a letter to the Director of the Americanism Commission of the Legion, FBI Assistant Director C.D. DeLoach said: "We agree that it is a good one and would you please put it on your approved list."
In October 1958 the Bureau prepared a formal review of the Overstreet book. It was described as a welcome "new aid" in combatting the Communist menace. Quoting from the review memo:
"This new book presents cogent advice to the thinking public. It reflects ideas common to the thinking which has gone on in the Bureau for many years."
FBI Director Hoover told the Attorney General that it "would be a good idea (to) encourage everyone in the Justice Department to read it" and he remarked that he was disappointed that reviews of the book had been cool.
The controversy over Overstreet and his book continued for years due, largely, to the JBS smear campaign against him which took the form of attempting to get Harry's speaking engagements around the country cancelled due to his alleged pro-Communist sympathies or planting hostile questioners in his audiences.
At one point Harry's wife Bonaro wrote to their primary contact within the Bureau (Lou Nichols) to express their frustration and anger at being attacked in Texas by American Legion representatives. Nichols and the Bureau's liaison to the Legion (Asst Director C.D. DeLoach) contacted officials of the American Legion to set the record straight about Harry and his wife, whereupon attacks by Legioneers stopped.
In February 1961 J. Edgar Hoover responded to an inquiry about the Overstreet book. The Bureau file copy has the following notation: "We have had cordial relations with Dr. and Mrs. Harry Allen Overstreet and have furnished them considerable assistance in connection with their books."
The Bureau subsequently assisted Harry with other books that he wrote, including: "The Strange Tactics of Extremism" (1964) and "The FBI In Our Open Society" (1969). In "Strange Tactics" Harry devoted a chapter to former FBI agent (and Birch supporter) Dan Smoot. Harry dissected falsehoods that Smoot published in his newsletter, Dan Smoot Reports.
FBI Assistant Director DeLoach prepared a review of "Strange Tactics" and he specifically applauded Harry's discussion of Smoot because the Bureau thought Smoot was propagating extreme rightwing viewpoints and was wrongly capitalizing on his former association with the Bureau to inflate his credibility.
Smoot, along with Fred Schwarz (Christian Anti-Communism Crusade), Billy James Hargis (Christian Crusade), and Edgar Bundy (Church League of America), were often described sarcastically in Bureau memos as "professional anti-Communists."
Incidentally, Harry Overstreet probably belongs in the Guiness Book of Records since he would be the only alleged Communist sympathizer ever to author a highly commendatory review of J. Edgar Hoover's 1958 book "Masters of Deceit" which appeared in the June 1958 issue of National Parent-Teacher (national PTA magazine). Upon learning about it, J. Edgar Hoover sent Harry a thank-you note.
When Harry died in 1970, Hoover sent a condolence telegram to his wife, Bonaro. It praised Harry's "many contributions" to the fight against Communism and offered deepest sympathies from "his many friends at the Bureau".
Robert Morris, the former Chief Counsel of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, had a close personal relationship with the Overstreets. Morris wrote to me in March 1989 about the Overstreets. Here is an excerpt:
"I did know Harry and Bonaro Overstreet in the late 1950s and 1960s. They were introduced to me by Louis Nichols when he was Assistant Director of the FBI. They were most helpful to me in my capacity of Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee...They became my friends and I am still grateful for their friendship."
Former FBI Security Informant Herbert Philbrick of "I Led 3 Lives" fame, and the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on UnAmerican Activities both referred to Harry Overstreet as an expert with extensive knowledge about how to fight Communism.
This is merely one example of how the Birch Society did enormous damage to our country by impugning the integrity and loyalty of Americans who did not share their warped viewpoints.
Anyone interested in further details about Overstreet or the FBI's negative evaluations about Robert Welch and The John Birch Society, feel free to contact me at: ernieinps@aol.com
As I recall, this USAF explosives expert approached THEM with his analysis and they checked it all out and launched their stories. It was also an interesting fact I also had confirmed that many of the BATF personnel in that building who were supposed to be there in the Murrah Building at 9 am were in fact either out in the "field" or sick or someplace else when their office was pulverized.
TNA had this, but nobody else did. As I said I got the confirmation from congressional staffers whose bosses were in the followup. Congressional "leaks." LOL
Most of the JBS folks who come on this website despise Catholics.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2003
Contact: Press Office
(305) 349-2391
JUDICIAL WATCH GETS VATICAN TO FINALLY SPEAK OUT AGAINST FIDEL CASTRO’S HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Shortly Before JW’s Private European Delegation, Catholic Church Publicly Announced It Would Not Get Involved In Cuban Political Prisoner Situation
(Miami, FL)–Judicial Watch, the public interest group that has fought the tyranny of Fidel Castro, proudly announced that, thanks to recent meetings with top Vatican officials in Rome, the Catholic church is finally speaking out against the latest human rights violations committed by terrorist dictator Fidel Castro. It breaks a decade-long silence streak by the Catholic church regarding human rights on the island prison.
But thanks to JW’s recent diplomatic mission to Rome, where Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman also met with U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson, the church finally issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the Cuban government’s return to hard-line ideology and asking “the country’s authorities for a gesture of clemency toward these people who are in jail.”
Judicial Watch represents two of the intellectuals–economist Martha Beatriz Roque and independent journalist Normando Hernandez--jailed earlier this year for opposing Castro and has fought hard for the release of all 75. Roque’s sister, Isabel Roque, was quoted in today’s Miami Herald as saying: “It’s about time the church does something. Hopefully it will have an effect. These poor prisoners are living like animals.”
JW’s diplomatic mission, suggested and coordinated by U.S. State Department officials, visited six European countries and included lengthy meetings with top Vatican officials. The JW mission was headed by Klayman and provided compelling testimony from exiled Castro dissident Blanca Gonzalez, who is the mother of Normando Hernandez. JW friend and special presidential envoy, Otto Reich, visited the same European officials on behalf of the U.S. Government immediately following the JW delegation.
Besides this latest development from the Vatican, the effects of JW’s mission have been incredible. For instance, Holland cut financial aide it has given Castro for years, Greece denied the Cuban dictator a visa to attend the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the EU Parliament called for the immediate release of political prisoners. This was all the result of JW’s mission.
“Thanks to JW’s diplomatic European mission, the EU now has a better understanding that this is a humanitarian emergency and so does the Vatican. It is now apparent that the world will no longer stand by and allow this murderous dictator to continue torturing, killing and falsely imprisoning his people,” Klayman said.
And it sure doesn't look to me like the Catholic Church wants to cut ties with terrorists like Fidel Castro either. It has to take an outsider to plead with the "authorities" of the church for God's sake.
What kind of church embraces communist ideologies?
Ans: The kind of church that ordains itself as "God" to overlord the sheeple with fear.
God Almighty will surely avenge those who destroy His people with fire just as He did with the Flood. And His time is drawing near. Isaiah 66: 15-17, 2 Peter 3:1-17
The fall of the Berlin Wall was just a political symbol and a complete joke. Communism is still alive and well in Russia, China, and Cuba. My roommate who escaped from communist Vietnam would strongly disagree with you on this Berlin Wall stuff. Also, a former classmate from Russia revealed in class that Russia is still Communist for you have no rights to speak against the government over there as they (GRU) equivalent to the FBI follow you everywhere.
Also, what about the Vatican that is the higher orthodoxy of the Catholic Church? Why is it so friendly with Fidel Castro? Why is the Pope embracing Fidel Castro?
If the "people" of Cuba can now attend mass, why are so many desperately trying to get out of Cuba? And who are "the people" that you are referring to? Could it be that Pappa Castro kills those who denounce him as God? Sure, the Cuban government gives outsiders the impression that "the people" can attend mass but they do not have the freedom to worship Jesus Christ as their Savior. They also do not have freedom of travel. Many of them have died trying to get away from this possessed tyrant.
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