Posted on 07/09/2005 3:00:31 PM PDT by wagglebee
Brian Williams, main character of the dark, prime time NBC satire called "Nightly News," is now a finalist, with Newsweek magazine and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., for the title of "Revisionist Historian of The Year." The honor goes to the creator of the biggest whopper defaming America and/or Americans, for which an apology is required. The judges have to decide whether the recipient created the fiction out of malevolence or ignorance. No extra points are awarded for stupidity.
Newsweek had the inside track on the prize until the editors retracted an unsubstantiated charge that Americans had flushed a Quran down a toilet at the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Then, a few weeks later, Durbin claimed the honor by imaginatively comparing members of America's Armed Forces with those of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Cambodia's Pol Pot. He subsequently kind of apologized for giving "some people" a "mistaken impression."
Now, Williams has moved to the fore with a delightful fiction that America's founding fathers are no different than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic radical who was recently selected as the next president of Iran. On June 31st, following a report that Ahmadinejad might have been one of those who sacked our Tehran embassy and seized 52 American hostages in 1979, Williams said, "What would it all matter if proven true? … The first several U.S. Presidents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called ‘terrorists’ by the British crown."
In order to qualify for the award as "Revisionist Historian of the Year," the statement made must be patently untrue, but widely accepted as the truth. In the case of Newsweek's "Quran in the Guantanamo toilet" claim, the charge was thoroughly refuted by reputable investigators -- but widely accepted as fact in the Islamic media. Mr. Durbin's fabrication was mathematically implausible since more than thirty million people perished in Khmer Rouge, Nazi and Soviet detentions, while none have died at Guantanamo. Nonetheless, it continues to be repeated throughout the Islamic world.
Judging Williams' creation is a more difficult task, requiring knowledge of both Ahmadinejad's words and deeds -- as well as those of "the first several U.S. Presidents." Since recent polls show that most of Williams' viewers cannot even recite the names of "the first several U.S. Presidents" -- and know even less about the new Iranian president -- awarding Williams the prize is problematic. If he wants the recognition he deserves, Williams should spell out some of the following facts:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new president of Iran, has proudly proclaimed his membership in the Pasdaran -- the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps -- the entity responsible for seizing the U.S. Embassy and holding American diplomats and Marines hostage for 444 days. He now claims that he only supported the embassy seizure because that's what Ayatollah Khomeini wanted. Ahmadinejad insists he did not participate in it, but at least four of the former hostages place the president-elect among their captors.
Iranian reformers -- who were not allowed to run in the presidential election that Ahmadinejad won -- claim that in the 1980s, he was with the "Internal Security" department of the IRGC and had responsibility for "interrogations, torture and executions." According to current and former IRGC leaders, during that same time frame, the organization assisted the Hezbollah terrorist organization in kidnapping Americans in Beirut, killing 241 Marines at the barracks near the Beirut airport and twice blowing up the American Embassy in the Lebanese capital. One of Ahmadinejad's most memorable lines: "We did not have a revolution in order to have a democracy." So far, he's yet to condemn the mass murder in London.
Williams doesn't specify, but "the first several U.S. Presidents" must include George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and perhaps Andrew Jackson -- the last U.S. President to have served in the American Revolution.
George Washington commanded the Continental Army -- in uniform, not as a terrorist. The warrant against him by the British crown charged him with rebellion -- not terrorism. There is no record of Washington ever being involved in torture, hostage taking or murder but we know he repatriated British diplomats. One of his most memorable lines: "It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it."
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison served in civil and/or diplomatic capacities during the Revolution. None was involved in any known acts of terror against the British or their allies. Their most memorable lines are found in the Record of the Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
James Monroe served as an officer in the Continental Army and was wounded in the Battle of Trenton. There is no record of any involvement in torturing hostages or committing any acts of terrorism. His most notable lines were contained in the Monroe Doctrine.
John Quincy Adams was a child during the Revolution and committed no known acts of terrorism. He is best remembered for advocating the abolition of slavery during the 17 years he served in the House of Representatives after being president.
Andrew Jackson served in the Continental Army as a teen-aged boy. His face bore the scar of a British officer's saber cut -- a wound inflicted after young Jackson refused to clean his captor's boots. His best lines were in opposing the creation of a government banking system.
To those who know the facts, the difference between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and "the first several U.S. Presidents" is stark and profound. That's what makes Williams' gross distortion so breathtaking in scope and so appealing to those who hate America and Americans, especially in the aftermath of what just happened in London. On the bright side, Williams may have clinched the title: "Revisionist Historian of the Year."
Colonel North is absolutely brilliant here!
Excellent article. Thanks.
The most prominent statement of the article!
Ollie is the man. Run for President already! North/Rice '08!
And in the process Williams has stressed his "brain power" to maximum overload to create this scenario of fiction.
Not to mention the fact that the Continental Army waged war against the British Army who came to put down a declared state of independence. I am unaware of any cases of civilians ever being targeted by American forces. The 1979 revolution in Iran started as a revolt against the Shah; however, he fled the country early on. The US embassy personnel were taken hostage because the US was allowing the Shah to receive medical care for terminal cancer. The Shah then left the United States and died in Egypt in July, 1980. This basically proves that the Iranian hostage crisis was an exercise in terrorism that had nothing to do with the Shah.
Always brilliant.
If the Islamofascists desire was to have their own country, which would live peacefully with the other nations of the world, I would be all for it. The truth is that they have no such desire, their goal is to kill everyone who does not subscribe to their barbaric beliefs.
This may be the best sentence I've read this year.
Perhaps, however sadly enough many don't appreciate our understanding of this "icon" known as Brian Williams.
Colonel Oliver North really nails the lunatic left!
Let Freedom Reign!
Unfortunately, North has too much baggage from Iran/Contra!
Otherwise I'd be with you!
"Brian Williams, main character of the dark, prime time NBC satire called "Nightly News..." GREAT start to a GREAT article! Go Ollie!
Appreciate this post, thanks! Oh, and BUMP, too!
I don't care about Iran Contra, Ollie is the man. :D I'd vote him over McStain! :D
The Iran-Contra Affair (also known as "Irangate") was a mid-1980s political scandal in the United States. President Ronald Reagan's administration sold arms to Iran, an avowed enemy. At the time, Americans were being held hostage by Islamic terrorists in Lebanon, and it was hoped that Iran would influence the terrorists to release the hostages; at the same time, Iran, which was in the midst of the Iran-Iraq War, could find few nations willing to supply it with weapons. The U.S. diverted proceeds from the sale to Contras fighting a guerrilla war against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua, which was backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union. Both the sale of weapons and the funding of the Contras violated either stated administration policy or legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress, which had outlawed funding the Contras.
Oh... so we were selling arms to Iran & Iraq so they would kill each other.. Who cares.. We stopped the commies in Nicaragua Ollie is a Hero!
I agree with you!!!
I am just saying what the MSM and dems would use...
BTW, I do believe that Sen. Kerry and Sen. Harkin were in Nicaragua buddying it up with the bad guys....hasn't kept them from elected office...
Proceeds from the arms sales were made available, in an arrangement instituted by Colonel Oliver North, aide to the U.S. National Security Advisor John Poindexter, to purchase arms for the Nicaraguan Contras (from Spanish contrarrevolucionario, trans. "counter-revolutionary"). The Contras were waging an insurgency against the Marxist Sandanista government, but, under the Boland Amendment, the U.S. Congress barred American funding to the Contras. Thus, the Reagan administration illegally provided covert financial assistance to the Contras in order to circumvent Congress, made possible by the North's diversion of profits from weapons sales to Iran. In addition, the Contras received weapons and training from the Central Intelligence Agency.
The economy of Nicaragua deteriorated under the continuing contra attacks on the country's infrastructure and the inability of the government to obtain financing from Western institutions such as the World Bank due to U.S. opposition. The devastation of Hurricane Joan in 1988, called by then-US Ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte "a contra victory," was another serious blow. In the 1990 elections, President Daniel Ortega lost to former Sandanista Violeta Chamorro, who ran with open US support on an anti-Sandanista coalition platform.
Boland Amendment
The Boland Amendment was an amendment to the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which was attached as something known as a "Barnacle Bill," or provision that would not be expected to pass on its own merit, to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983. During the early years of the Reagan administration, a civil war raged in Nicaragua, pitting the Marxist Sandinista leaders of the Nicaraguan government against CIA-financed Contra rebels. When the CIA carried out a series of acts of sabotage without Congressional intelligence committees giving consent, or even being made aware beforehand, the Republican-controlled Senate became enraged, leading to the passage of the Boland Amendment and subsequent cutting off of appropriated funding for the Contras. The Boland Amendment was a highly limited ambiguous compromise because the Democrats did not have enough votes for a comprehensive ban. It only covered appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies (such as the CIA). Reagan's people used non-appropriated money spent by the National Security Council to circumvent the Amendment. No court ever made a determination whether Boland covered the NSC, and no one was ever indicted for violating it. However, for years liberals alleged that Reagan's people violated the highly ambiguous amendment. Congress later resumed aid to the Contras, totaling over $300 million; the Sandinistas were voted out in 1990. The Boland Amendment prohibited the federal government from providing military support "for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of Nicaragua." As such it was thought by many to be an unconstitutional interference with the President's ability to conduct foreign policy. It aimed to prevent CIA funding of rebels opposed to the Marxist provisional junta, the Boland Amendment sought to block Reagan administration support for the Contra rebels. The amendment was narrowly interpreted by the Reagan administration only to apply to US intelligence agencies, allowing the National Security Council, not so labeled, to channel funds to the Contra rebels.
Sounds like the Democrats never found a Commie that they didn't like.
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