Plame tweet prompts conserva-purge of Giraldi

Valerie Plame, an ex-spook beloved by the left, got in hot water when she tweeted an article by fellow ex-spook beloved by the (far) right Philip Giraldi with the lovely title “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars.” In the subsequent outrage, The American Conservative finally gave Giraldi the sack. But Giraldi’s Judeophobia seems not to bother others. He continues to have Unz Review for a platform, and they love him over at the (conspiranoid-right) Veterans Today. And the Council for the National Interest predictably continues to embrace Giraldi as their executive director. This outfit, fronted by our nemesis Alison Weir, is just what its name sounds like—a beltway body of paleocon right-nationalists paranoid about Jewish subversion.

Weir also ran Giraldi’s offending screed on the blog of her sidekick organization, If Americans Knew—with a different title and an editorial note generously conceding that the piece “in some places paints with too broad a brush.” However, she took the time to put all the names of Jews and Jewish organizations in the piece in bold.

Would that some of our supposed allies on the “left” were as principled as our enemies at The American Conservative! Principled voices in the Palestine struggle have given Weir and her odious organizations the heave-ho. Others remain confused on the matter (or worse).

The always problematic Al-Awda and International ANSWER (both in the orbit of the retro-Stalinist Workers World Party) invited Weir to speak at their anti-AIPAC rally in DC back in March, as If Americans Knew boasts on its blog. The reliably reactionary Counterpunch of course continues to run Weir’s stuff. An open letter in defense of Weir and If Americans Knew entitled “Stop Divisive Attacks” (read: normalize anti-Semitism) is signed by Richard FalkCindy Sheehan and (in a slightly incestuous move) Philip Giraldi. And while this year’s Left Forum in New York finally did cancel some panels for blatant Jew-baiting (despite the whining of Counterpunch), Weir’s panel apparently went ahead. In passive-aggressive style, it was entitled “Deep State 2.0: Against Anti-Semitism, but Critical of Zionism.” Isn’t that cute? Lip service to opposing anti-Semitism, while implicitly stating that the Jews (oops, we mean “Zionists”) are behind the “Deep State.”

The ever-problematic MondoWeiss also opts for a passive-aggressive tack, running a defense of Giraldi’s blame-the-Jews rant even while seeming to diss it as a “broadbrush prejudicial attack.” Basically, Mondo’s  Philip Weiss seems to be saying Giraldi used some not-nice wording, but… yup, it’s the Jews. MondoWeiss has plenty of material plugging Giraldi on its website, filled with the usual just-barely-code words like “dual loyalty” and “Deep State.”

Giraldi’s name also appeared regarding a fête where the very problematic Sy Hersh was to be perversely awarded for his latest piece of propaganda on behalf of the genocidal Bashar Assad dictatorship. Al-Bab notes Hersh’s “error-strewn” article denied that sarin gas was used in the April chemical attack at Khan Sheikhoun, contrary to the findings of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). For this, he was to be bestowed the Sam Adams Award by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, another body of ex-spooks and paleocons. Among the presenters at the Sept. 22 weekend soirée in DC was none other than Philip Giraldi. Perhaps wary of blowing his creds with the gullible left, Hersh cancelled his appearance there, as did “special guest”  Chelsea Manning.

What makes this particularly twsited is that the awards ceremony was part of a “”No War 2017” conference at the American University, featuring such supposed progs and peaceniks as Kevin Zeese and Medea Benjamin.  This is what we call Red-Brown Politics. With a whiff of hippie fascism.

As we’ve pointed out before concerning these characters, the moral failure of accommodating Jew-hatred isn’t just bad politics—it’s bad tactics, nicely serving the interests of Zionism.

Image: frgdr.com

  1. Giraldi strikes back, invokes Atzmon

    Philip Giraldi offers a screed in the always charming Unz Review, "How I Got Fired: Exposing Jewish power in America has real consequences," with a loving image of bloody bodies piled up before a podium labelled "AIPAC," where Hillary, Obama, Biden and Bibi (no Trump, take note) are shown in front of American and Israeli flags. He favorably cites his cohort Gilad Atzmon, who he says "has observed one of the most notable features of Jewish power is the ability to stifle any discussion of Jewish power by gentiles."

  2. Pseudo-left still embraces Giraldi

    They just aren't serious about getting better. Like the Left Forum in New York last year, a Left Coast Forum opening in Los Angeles this weekend, sponsored by KPFK, is featuring a far-right anti-Semitic conspiranoid. This time (you guessed it): ex-CIA spook Philip Giraldi, who is still spewing Jew-baiting crap on the right-wing Unz Review, as well as spreading calumnies about Syria's White Helmets. Legitimizing this creep by sharing the program with him at the Left Coast Forum are some predictable rascals like the ultra-odious Jimmy Dore. But also scheduled are figures we respect, such as Harvey WassermanKevin AndersonFrieda AfaryAlexander Reid Ross and Sina Zekavat. We trust that our comrades Harvey, Kevin, Frieda, Alexander and Sina will be repudiating Giraldi in their comments. (Rather than implicitly legitimizing him through silent consent and acquiescence.)

    We have had our own differences with Stanley Cohen, but we give him creds for calling out pseudo-leftists (in this case, If Americans Knew) for embracing the toxic Giraldi. Tweets Cohen: "I thought the name sounded familiar. Is he the same Ron Unz who supported the English only legislation and who is a funder of VDARE the white supremacist, white nationalist, anti immigrant web site? Small world."

    Yeah, Stan. That's the guy. Nice company you're in, Left Coast Forum.

  3. ‘If Americans Knew’ embraces Holocaust revisionism
    The vile Philip Giraldi’s latest for Unz Review, reprinted on the If Americans Knew blog, is entitled “Watch what you say: Israel controls the narrative.” Giraldi appears not to have taken his own advice to heart. The piece contains this true gem:

    Fourteen states now require holocaust education, where students are compelled to read fiction like Eli Wiesel’s “Night” while also consuming the established and standard, largely fabricated, account of what the so-called holocaust was all about.

    We note with deep chagrin that this genocide-denier was a featured speaker at the Left Forum in New York City last year.