The Nun’s Non-Story

The Daily Mail sniffs out a story about Laura Adshead, a former girlfriend of David Cameron who has reportedly become a nun based at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut:

Laura dated him from the spring of 1990 until summer 1991, and while he worked at Conservative Central Office, she went on to become the then Prime Minister John Major’s correspondence secretary.

Then their lives took different turns. Mr Cameron was selected for political stardom, while Laura left politics to study at the Wharton business school in Philadelphia.

…She became an executive in Manhattan for Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency that inspired the television drama Mad Men – but the stresses of success, and, perhaps, of personal rejection, finally proved too much for her.

…She says: ‘I feel like I tried most things in life that are supposed to make you happy. That journey took me down into alcoholism and drug addiction.’

It has been suggested that her downward spiral may have started soon after her break-up from the future Prime Minister.

In a 2007 biography of Cameron, a former colleague of the pair at Conservative headquarters recalled Laura being granted a ‘period of compassionate leave’ to recover from the heartbreak.

The key fudge in the above is this: “it has been suggested”. Suggested by whom? Not by Francis Elliott and James Hanning, the authors of Cameron: the Rise of the New Conservative, which is the biography cited above. An unnamed manager indeed (indiscreetly) mentions a “period of compassionate leave” following the break-up (p. 79), but there is no indication this was just before (or, by implication, caused) a “downward spiral”; in fact, the Mail’s own narrative (again taken from Elliott and Hanning) acknowledges that her time with Cameron preceded a successful career (she became correspondence secretary to John Major), and that she subsequently dated Andrew Roberts. The word “perhaps” before “personal rejection” is an indication that the supposed link (between two events more than 10 years apart) has has been plucked out of thin air.

Elliott and Hanning themselves wrote a piece for the Mail in 2007, adapted from their biography:

One colleague who took a shine to him was Laura Adshead, whom Cameron had known slightly at Oxford. The romance began in the spring of 1990 and lasted until summer 1991, although it does not seem to have ended tidily.

…Later she moved to New York, where she had a spell in a Catholic retreat, tending goats and immersing herself in religion. She then carved out a successful career in advertising.

In the biography this becomes “a spell as a nun”, which is not quite the same thing as “a spell in a Catholic retreat”, and is followed by a return to London as a “management consultant”; presumably this was all before she made a firmer decision to commit herself to the religious life. Either way, though, they avoid the patronizing suggestion Adshead must have become a nun as a result of romantic unhappiness.

The hook for the Mail‘s article is a new HBO documentary, in which Adshead features in a supporting role. The programme, God is Bigger than Elvis, focuses on Dolores Hart, Mother Prioress at the abbey. Hart has an interesting back-story, having been Hollywood actress in the 1950s and 1960s and having starred with Elvis Presley.

4 Freedoms Amends Code of Conduct After Post on Who “Should Have Been Killed” by Breivik

Writer was formerly the EDL member “most trusted” by Pamela Geller

The anti-Islam 4 Freedoms Community website has updated its Code of Conduct:

2.1 Legality

(b) Unlawful Killing
You must not endorse or encourage people to perform criminal executions. However, you can endorse enforcement of execution by the state (capital punishment) after application of due judicial process.

According to a note on the same page, the change was made on 22 April. It was made in response to an inquiry from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladget about a recent thread on the site; Roberta Moore (posting as “Morrigan Emaleth”) had used this thread to express her disappointment that Anders Brevik had failed to kill Eskil Pedersen, the AUF leader who survived the Utøya massacre by escaping by boat:

It seems Breivik missed one. This is precisely the coward that should have been killed. Cowards can run but eventually they meet their fate. May KARMA play its part now.

This was a bit too much for one other poster to the site, but his squeamishness merely served to spur Moore on further:

If Hitler had been killed he would not have caused the death of 11 million people. Right or wrong?

I am not interested in puritan views, but rational ones. We are debating serious issues and frankly I do not care who reads this. I am not here to appease the leftist media. 

As has been widely noted, Moore has recently written in the same sanguinary vein on Facebook and on the website of the Jewish Defence League UK; her  article on the JDL site denounces the “kangaroo court” trying Breivik, and the “Leftist slander constantly being thrown to undermine him and his views.”

Dagbladet says that it contacted Alan Lake, who chairs the 4 Freedoms Community site. An FFC administrator responded by admitting that there had been an “oversight” in the site’s house rules, which had now been amended:

Dagbladet har også kontaktet FFC-leder Alan Lake. Da opplyste en administrator at FFC setter pris på å bli orientert om saken, og at de har hatt en «forglemmelse» i sine ordensregler. Ordensreglene er nå utvidet.

Roberta Moore originally came to prominence as the leader of the EDL Jewish Division, although she split with the organisation last June; Pamela Geller, describing Moore as “the person whom I most trusted in the EDL”, consequently temporarily withdrew her support for the EDL (see here). Somewhat oddly, Moore continues to maintain a registered company called the “EDL English Defence League”, although it does not appear to have any relationship to the EDL.

Various sites have posted a photo which shows Lake kissing Moore on the cheek; this tender moment appears to have occurred at a meeting of EDL leaders at the Old Bank of England pub in Fleet Street, London – parts of the meeting appear in an Australian documentary which was broadcast in March 2011. Like Moore, Lake has since become estranged from the EDL, and claims that he was a secret EDL strategist or “bankroller” are perhaps exaggerated.

(Footnote: Moore also has an associate named Robert Bartholomeus. The coincidental phonetic similarity with my own name has on occasion led to confusion and unintentional defamation; I would ask anyone writing on the subject to take care on this point.)

Pat Robertson on Charles Taylor in 2009: “I Know Not the Man”

Pat Robertson, 2003, on Charles Taylor of Liberia:

So we’re undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country. And how dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, ‘You’ve got to step down.’

Pat Robertson, some time later:

In terms of Liberia, I was accused of being an associate of Charles Taylor. I never met Charles Taylor in my life. I’ve never met him once. I spoke to him once on the telephone, but he called me, but I’ve never seen him in my life. So be it the Washington Post indicated that I had some business dealings with Charles Taylor, but it just wasn’t true. It is my feeling that the best help you can give to people is to enable them to have economic progress, not just handouts, but to have industry that will give jobs.

The second quote is from an interview called “The Life of Dr. M.G. Pat Robertson- Part 2”, from CBN’s Turning Point series; no date is given, but other sites suggest it was broadcast in 2009.

As Christianity Today notes:

Robertson’s critics noted his financial interest in Liberia; at the time, Robertson had a four-year-old, $8 million agreement with Taylor to mine gold in the country. Robertson told the Washington Post that the mining operation, called Freedom Gold, was meant to fund humanitarian and evangelical efforts in Liberia.

Last year, Robertson’s CBN also came out heavily in support of Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast; the station declared that the Christian Gbagbo had lost an election due to voter fraud orchestrated by Saudi Arabia and “Muslims in France”. When Gbagbo announced a military curfew, CBN noted with satisfaction that the “timing is perfect” for the evening broadcast of CBN programmes in the evenings.

Support from CBN and Pat Robertson is perhaps something of a bad omen: Taylor was just a few days ago convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, while Gbagbo is currently himself facing charges at the International Criminal Court. Also currently facing trial is Robertson’s old friend Rios Montt.

Attack on Charles Johnson Over Ironic Headline

From Charles Johnson at LGF, last week:

Vatican Cracks Down on Uppity US Nuns

The Vatican is cracking down on American nuns who aren’t opposed to women’s rights and gay rights, which should surprise no one who’s been following the Catholic Church’s swing to the right.

As will be immediately obvious to anyone, the headline contains irony; Johnson does not believe that the nuns are being “uppity”, but he has used the word in order to convey the ugliness of what he believes to be the Vatican’s attitude towards them.

However, it is apparently useful for some individuals to pretend that the headline has a different meaning – here’s Dana Loesch, writing on Twitter:

…Why it was a “slur” when Rush said “uppity,” but not Charles? Hack. (1)

…I love nothing more than when husky white progressive males try to explain why it’s OK for them to use racial slurs. (2)

…No, no, noes. Charles previously classified it as a slur. According to his own rules, it still is one. (3)

And so on along the same lines.

This goes back to last November, when Rush Limbaugh described Michelle Obama as “uppity”; Glenn Beck concurred, identifying the word with “snotty”. However, “uppity” also has the connotation of “getting above one’s station”, and when applied to black people evokes memories of the phrase “uppity negro”, used by racist whites in the American south to demonize black social advancement; Limbaugh is certainly aware of this. Johnson was among those who attacked Limbaugh and Beck for using the word in the context of Michelle Obama.

Loesch’s argument begins with the suggestion that by using the phrase “uppity nuns”, Johnson understands that “uppity” isn’t really a racial term; this was the “gotcha” non-point made by a Christian Right blog called Blue Collar Philosophy, which is the ur-text of the subsequent attacks. However, this then slides into the mocking suggestion that since Johnson has claimed that “uppity” has a racial meaning, the fact that he has used the word himself means that he must guilty of using “racial slurs”. Blue Collar Philosophy also links triumphantly to a Tweet on the subject of black nuns:

Many Catholic nuns are black. @Lizardoid says they’re “uppity.” (4)

Pay no heed to the details that that “uppity US nuns” does not refer to a racial group, or that Johnson has used “uppity” to mock the Vatican’s attitude towards the nuns, rather than to describe what he thinks of the nuns.

Of course, “person on the internet is troll” is not much of a story, but the above is worth logging because Loesch has a public profile as a well-connected conservative talk-show host and as a contributor to CNN. She is controversial for other reasons, but her Tweets here show her up as a hack willing to engage in vicious distortions for political gain. Her bad faith does not just insult the intelligence of the public; she undermines her own integrity. She could perhaps defend herself by claiming that she’s simply echoing what’s been passed along the food-chain (The Blue Collar Philosophy post was picked up by Dan Riehl), but what kind of a person makes a dozen goading Tweets on a point they haven’t properly checked out?

Johnson is a lightning rod for this sort of nonsense: back in January, the fact that all books available on Amazon can be purchased through his site’s personal store prompted the late Andrew Breitbart to claim that Johnson is “PROFITING from the racist Turner Diaries”; prior to that, scepticism of a claim by Robert Spencer that a family shooting in Texas had been an honour killing provoked Spencer to accuse Johnson of “excusing” honour crimes in return for payment. There is also a chorus of lesser blogs along the same lines which are probably not worth mentioning – but the words of Loesch, Breitbart, and Spencer are of wider significance as providing the ideological underpinning for a large-scale political movement. It’s all rather unattractive.

Molotov and Maranatha

Last December, Good published a profile by Kristin Rawls of Jason “Molotov” Mitchell and his wife Patricia (“DJ Dolce”). Molotov is one of WND‘s more abrasive commentators: he has no problem with the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, pointing out that it reflects Uganda’s culture and that gay Ugandans can simply leave the country; he has a long list of “Nazis” that includes Obama and Wiccans; and – inevitably – he regards Sandra Fluke as a “slut”. I looked at some of his material here, and managed to elicit a comment from the man himself.

Good’s profile includes some personal background:

Molotov has a more troubled past. His father was an evangelical Christian who worked construction. His mother has struggled for years with symptoms of mental illness. Molotov disapprovingly notes that she “had a very strong feminist thing going on,” and one day, “my father came home and she’d just left a note and taken me with her. She was cursed by God for doing that. To this day, she hears demonic voices non-stop.”

Molotov’s father Wayne Mitchell may indeed have “worked construction” when Molotov was very young, but for most of Molotov’s life he has been an evangelist and pastor. One wonders why Molotov has decided to downplay this now; a 2008 article in Harper’s mentions that

Mitchell’s parents divorced when he was five, and his father, an evangelical pastor who now heads the Beacon City Church in Boston, raised him.

According to a 1995 article in Charisma (snippet on Google Books), Wayne Mitchell “worked with Maranatha Campus Ministries in the 1980s”, and he created an organisation to evangelise foreign students, called “Churches Serving Internationals” in Durham, NC. Jay Rogers of the Forerunner (a Maranatha newsletter) has further details:

I was contacted by Jason Mitchell… Jason mentioned that he knew The Forerunner and that his dad had been part of Maranatha Ministries. Jason didn’t remember me, but I knew him quite well when he was a teenager. His father, Wayne Mitchell, now a pastor in Boston, and I produced The Mandate, a version of The Foreunner for Chinese students, for three years in the mid-1990s.

I am glad to see that Jason has turned out to be even more radical than his father. God is truly a sovereign God!

Maranatha has a particularly controversial history; the organisation was was accused of authoritarianism and abuse in the 1980s, and it collapsed in 1989 – I discussed this here. Some of those involved with Maranatha then reformed as Morning Star International, later rebranded as Every Nation. In the 1990s, Wayne Mitchell was the associate pastor of a Morning Star church in Durham called King’s Park International Church. He moved to Boston in 2001, but an association remains: the senior pastor at KPIC, Ron Lewis, created a new organisation to evangelise students, called Campus Harvest, and Molotov’s “Illuminati Pictures” created a promo for this group in 2007. In Boston, Wayne Mitchell formed Beacon City Church; however, as I discussed here, Beacon City was originally “Maranatha Christian Church of Boston”, and later “Boston Morning Star Church” (it has recently “joined forces” with another Boston church, called Aletheia Church).

Another student group created by KPIC is High Rise, which in 2009 hosted Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. This was before Ssempa’s had become infamous for a viral video in which he conflated gay sex with coprophagy, but his views were very much on record.

Footnote

Morning Star International should not be confused with Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries. However, Joyner is friendly with Bob Weiner, who headed Maranatha. Another controversial figure formerly associated with Maranatha is Pastor Terry Jones, as I discussed here.

Christian Concern and World Congress of Families to Hold London Conference Ahead of Madrid Event

Christian Concern has published details of its upcoming “One Man, One Woman” conference, to be held on 23 May. The event was announced earlier this month in a press release issued by Don Feder of the World Congress of Families; here’s the line-up:

Remembering the Nature of Marriage
Peter Duckworth (Barrister – Family Specialist)

Observing the State of Marriage
Sir Paul Coleridge (High Court Judge, Family Division)
Allan C. Carlson (Founder, World Congress of Families)

Making the Case for Marriage
Phillip Blond (Director, ResPublica)
Cristina Odone (Journalist and Media Commentator)
Ben Harris-Quinney (Chairman, The Bow Group)

Duckworth has spoken at a previous Christian Concern event, while Coleridge announced a new “Marriage Foundation” in January. Harris-Quinney recently issued a statement against gay marriage, and he is the author of piece warning the Conservative Party that it must “decide between the pulpit and the progressive agenda”. Blond, meanwhile, is famous as David Cameron’s “Red Tory Philosophy King”; ResPublica’s view of gay marriage has been articulated by John Milbank, who is a ResPublica Fellow (and, perhaps somewhat awkwardly, a 9/11 Truther who reportedly recently screamed at Oliver Kamm that he was “going to to be dealt with”). Odone’s argument against gay marriage appeared in a Telegraph column last month.

But what of the American guest star in the show, Allan Carlson? I’ll again quote journalist Kathryn Joyce:

Carlson, the Lutheran head of the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, is a compelling conservative historian who uses secular arguments to advance religious right ideas. A chief example of this is “The Natural Family Manifesto,” a guiding document of the WCF community, co-written by Carlson and Paul Mero, head of the Mormon think tank the Sutherland Institute. The ecumenical call to arms extols a conservative lifestyle where fathers lead and women honor their highest domestic calling by becoming “prolific mothers” of “full quivers of children.”

In service of that goal, Carlson, who has helped craft policy for ultra-right Senator Sam Brownback and Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska, hopes to involve the state in a pro-family welfare system, where tax laws encourage large families, and the government encourages a family-and-faith-centered legal system, which repeals “witch-hunting” child abuse laws that restrict parental discipline as well as no-fault divorce; imposes penalties for unmarried cohabitation; and reconfigures Social Security to provide support on a family, rather than individual basis, so that women are recognized not for their work as independent employees but for their roles as spouses and mothers. 

Doris Buss and Didi Herman, law professors and co-authors of Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics, write that the Manifesto’s secular, social science rationales are part of the “‘intellectualization’ of the Christian Right”.

The conference website also carries the notice that

Our London event will be followed by a full World Congress in Madrid from Friday 25th – Sunday 27th May 2012 – for more information please visit the website.

Attendees in Madrid will be able to enjoy talks on subjects such as “The Cultural Roots of Demographic Winter”; “The Threat from Transnational Progressivism”; “Authentic Women  and Rediscovering Homemaking”; and “Solutions to Homosexual Behavior”.

The Madrid line-up lists around 100 speakers: familiar faces include Alan Sears (of the Alliance Defense Fund); Ted Baehr (of “Movieguide“); Richard Cohen (who has addressed the Polish parliament on the need to keep homosexuality criminalised); Natalya Yakunina (wife of Vladimir Yakunin, an Orthodox activist who runs Russia’s railways and who is close to Vladimir Putin); Steve Mosher (of Paul Marx’s Population Research Institute) ; and Peter LaBarbera (of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality; LaBarbera is known for his particularly ugly and obsessive rhetoric on the subject, and for his links with Scott Lively).

Along with Ben Harris-Quinney, the British end in Madrid will be represented by: Gordon Macdonald (of CARE and Care Not Killing); Paul Coleman (a Christian Concern legal advisor); Robert Colquhoun (of “40 Days for Life”, which has brought US-style anti-abortion protests to the UK); Ade Omooba (a pastor, who organised a protest against the Sexual Orientations Regulations  in 2007); and Christian filmmaker Norman Stone (not to be confused with the historian).

No Investigation of Fabricated Evidence sent to Bedfordshire Police about Blogger

Once again, I return to the subject of anonymous smear attacks against Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads. Tim is adept at identifying and exposing instances of dishonesty on-line, in the media, and in politics, as a result of which he has a number of enemies who use underhand methods in attempts to discredit or intimidate (I’ve had a bit of attention myself for daring to write about it). Just last week, a paedo smear about Tim was posted to Wikipedia; back in November Tim wrote about fabricated evidence of mental illness:

In January 2010, during a police investigation that resulted from Dorries’ complaint/’report, some fabricated evidence emerged. It was quite damaging stuff. The anonymous originator claimed to have fished it out of my bin; a box of prescription medication made out to me (specifically a powerful anti-psychotic drug). Bedfordshire Police investigated its origins until they hit a dead end.

A photo of the box was sent to Tim anonymously, in order to taunt. Further:

Police were advised of the following by a medical professional they interviewed as part of their investigation, and I was present when it was said; the medication involved is a carefully controlled substance to the extent that you cannot pick up even an empty box like it by digging through bins at the back of Boots; the original picture that was used for this forgery was most likely accessed by someone who had been prescribed this medication, or enjoyed a position of trust with someone who had been prescribed this medication.

The photo was also emailed to individuals hostile to Tim; one of these was “Harry Cole”, sidekick to Paul Staines. Although Cole has no moral objection to lying and smearing, he realised he had to be careful how he deployed his gift, and so he decided to claim that he believed that the photo had been sent to him by Tim himself as a “sting”. It was explained to Cole that this was not the case, but that the email’s metadata might contain evidence of use to the police in tracking down a potentially dangerous stalker. Cole’s response on Twitter: “Go fuck yourself”.

It now transpires that the photo was also sent to Bedfordshire Police. The background here is that Nadine Dorries MP has a habit of reporting critics to the police for harassment, including her Liberal Democrat opponent at the last election; she infamously made a complaint about Tim after Tim filmed (openly and with the permission of the organisers) a hustings event at which Dorries was speaking. Clearly, if the police were to believe that Tim was on anti-psychotic drugs, that would have an effect on how they viewed her complaint. Of course, it is not here claimed that Dorries had anything to do with the photo – but a number of other individuals would have been very happy to see Dorries succeed in using the police to silence or discredit Tim.

One would hope the police would take the matter seriously: the creation and dissemination of the photo was not only a malicious attempt to cause Tim distress, but an attempt to interfere with a police investigation with the intention that the course of justice would be perverted. Also of relevance is that Tim has made complaints of his own about harassment, one of which very nearly came to court in September.

However, Bedfordshire Police are apparently reluctant to share information with Tim, let alone investigate further. His latest blog post features a letter he has written to a Bedfordshire DCI:

Among the false allegations passed to Bedfordshire Police; fabricated evidence with the obvious intention of give people the false idea that I am clinically psychotic, and a danger to others.

…After failing to disclose an instance of this being passed directly to your investigating officer(s) during an investigation, Bedfordshire Police then failed to disclose it again in response to a legitimate subject access request after that investigation, and you now claim that you cannot disclose any detail about its source because of a further investigation.

If this fabricated evidence has any bearing on your current investigation, then why are you not investigating its origins?

If it it not relevant to your current investigation, then on what grounds do you refuse disclosure today?

I believe this evidence has a direct bearing on a current investigation by Surrey Police; it forms part of my complaint, and I would like to know on what grounds you refuse me the data I require to make them fully aware of its significance.

…Like you, Surrey Police also refused to disclose this fabricated evidence to me in response to a subject access request under the Data Protection Act, and had I not pressed the matter, I would never have discovered that Bedfordshire Police were aware of three items of evidence where previously I was only aware of one.

Daily Telegraph on Anders Brevik and Paul Ray

A breathless report in the Telegraph:

Anders Behring Breivik trial: the ‘real’ Lionheart

Anders Breivik has insisted at his trial that he attended a meeting in London in 2002 in which his violent right-wing group, the so-called “Knights Templar,” was founded.

…Three days after the Norway attacks, the Daily Telegraph identified and tracked down a British man calling himself Paul Ray, who admitted that he could have been the inspiration for Breivik, although he denied ever meeting him.

British and Norwegian investigators are convinced that Breivik’s Knights Templars do not exist but say it is possible that he was inspired by information he found on the internet. If he was, Ray appears to be the man he modeled himself on.

In his 1,500 page manifesto, Breivik wrote that his “assigned mentor” at the founding meeting was “referred to as Richard (the Lionhearted).”

This was all raked over last year; the theory of Ray as Breivik’s model collapses under scrutiny. Ray uses the name “Lionheart” on his blog, but that’s not the same as “Richard the Lionhearted”, and “Lionheart” is obviously the first name that would come to mind to anyone who wished to identify with Crusaders. Ray and Breivik also regard Serb nationalists and Liberia’s Charles Taylor as Christian champions against Islam, but again, these are shared generic sympathies rather than evidence of influence.

Further, Breivik claims to have met his “mentor” in 2002; Ray’s anti-Islam activism dates from several years later. According to evidence from Breivik’s current trial, credit card records show that Breivik visited a café London in 2002; by his own account, he attended a meeting which consisted of “four sweaty men in a basement”. However, even if a meeting really happened, there is no reason to suppose Ray was present.

Ray was one of the founders of the English Defence League in 2009, although he was sidelined soon afterwards and broke away. Ray’s blog fulminates against the current EDL leadership, and against Alan Lake, who has also been accused of having influenced Breivik. Ray has revealed details of an EDL planning meeting at Lake’s apartment in 2009, and he has published an email from one of Lake’s associates (“Kinana”, discussed here) which mentions that another person present at this meeting also uses the name “Richard the Lionheart”. While it would be interesting to know who this person is (“a big ginger-haired guy from London”, in Ray’s recollection), again, there’s no reason to extrapolate from this to a link to Breivik.

The Telegraph continues:

Ray went on to become a member of a group calling itself Order 777 that appeared to advocate a violent struggle against Muslims.

Order 777 posted videos online featuring a depiction of a Templar Knight and footage of a variety of armed gangs, including Serbian nationalists and Liberian fighters such as Charles Taylor.

…Both the videos and [Breivik’s] manifesto featured a man called Milorad Ulemek, a former commander of a unit of the Serbian security services who was arrested in 2004 and convicted of the assassinations of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic.

The Telegraph also makes a few other connections:

Mr Ray, who later moved to Malta, is originally from Luton, Bedfordshire, a place that Breivik referred to repeatedly in court.

Lastly, the videos featured a thumping trance music soundtrack, exactly the kind of music Breivik listened to obsessively as he prepared his attacks.

Despite the similarities, Ray pointed out that the right-wing anti-Muslim movement did not begin in Britain until 2006 – which by coincidence is the same date Breivik claims to have started writing his manifesto.

Luton is also known as the original centre for EDL activism, so once again there’s no need to make a link to Ray; the other “similarities” appear to be incidental.

However, “Order 777” is genuinely troubling, even without the Breivik element; the “group” represents Ray’s association with Nick Greger, a reformed neo-Nazi, and with Greger’s friend Johnny Adair, a well-known figure in Northern Irish Loyalism. There is a website which purports to belong to the group, which contains the following  blurb (1):

The Order 777 is a Paraintelligence Service structured in Special Operation Units (SOU).
Task of The Order 777 is to fight the threat of Islamic Terrorism on 3 Levels:

– Operations to expose Islamic Terrorists, their Networks and Activities.
– spiritual Warfare to fight Islam itself.
– assistance in founding Citizen Militias with purpose of self-protection of Communities which are directly terrorized by Jihadists.

Members of The Order 777 are operating alongside different Secret Services in various Countries.

The Order 777 is an Christian Brotherhood,
outside Europe especialy dedicated to support Christians in:
Democratic Republic Congo,Nigeria,Liberia,Sierra Leone,Casamance Region in Senegal,Egypt,southern Sudan,Armenia,Lebanon and Israel to name just some of them .

You find a few Samples of how The Order 777 operates in our Video Section with Explanation to the Operations written amongst the Videos.

Members of The Order 777 are in general reformed Characters who converted to Christianity,dedicated to protect Christendom against the onslaught of Islam.

Further Task and Goal of The Order 777 is to build an save Haven for its Members aft, er their Retirement. A save Haven in Form of a Settlement on private Property in a secret Location. A Vision which The Order 777 Mentor Lonnie Earl Johnson once described as *Building the new Jerusalem in the Heart of Darkness…a Light to inspire others to follow our Example*.

The reference to “Mentor Lonnie Earl Johnson” is particularly bizarre. Johnson was executed in Texas in 2007 for the fatal shooting of two teenagers in 1990; Johnson claimed to have acted in self-defence from a racist attack (he was black and the two teenagers were white), but one cannot see what the case has to do with Ray and Greger’s concerns. The quote attributed to Johnson cannot be found anywhere else, and he does not appear to have had any interest in Islam.

The site is owned by someone using the name and image of “Danny Archer” (the protagonist of the film Blood Diamonds), and dates from 2011. The owner is listed as having joined in August, so presumably the site dates from then – which was a month after Brevik’s massacre. At this time Ray was complaining bitterly that he had been misunderstood and unfairly associated with violence; his appearance on a sinister site alongside photos of Eugene Terre Blanche and Ulemek (among other figures, including Adair and Johnson) seems an odd way to dispel such impressions.

(1)globalresistance.webs.com/

UPDATE (16 June): This is rather alarming; despite Ray’s repudiation of Breivik, Greger has now uploaded a video to his “madnick77” Youtube account vilifying Breivik’s victims and describing Breivik as “Commander Anders Breivik”:

The video’s text notes the AUF’s support for an economic boycott of Israel, and explains that

Utoya island youth camp was politically organized, multi-cultural camp for leftist youth and black immigrants. Ideas of multicultural neo-marxism, feminism, antifascism.. were injected into young people here. There have been no innocent children in the marxist political training and brainwash camp of Utoya. they have been radical political activists who have been fully aware of what they are plotting. it was the next generation of a ruling class who is directly responsible for the destruction in our countries and communities.

The video includes images of Crusaders, the grave of the Serbian warlord Arkan, and ends with an Orthodox icon. Although the video is clearly authored by Greger, “Order 777” is listed as a “supporter”, along with the names “Rebels for Christ” and “RMJ” (the latter symbolised by a clenched fist and a Star of David). There is also a mysterious low-resolution photo of a blonde woman.

Greger has also engaged with a commentator on YouTube:

This video kinda ruins everything Paul said to the norwegian police, doesn’t it? – flasKamel

no it dosent as the video is just a information of what the media doesn not tell the public and we just support that people have to get access to all informations surrounding breiviks motivation.by the way,paul rays opinions are paul rays opinions.me myself i did never hide that those people in utoya havent just been innocent kids playing football in a summer camp and thats the point. – madnick77

(H/T Julie Blackadder and Nemesis Republic)

 

Mikhalkov Attacks “Standards” of Russian Cinema, Calls for Putin to Intervene

Interfax reports:

Russia’s Union of Cinematographers came out with a statement in which it lashed out at the standards of Russian cinema, lambasted the Russian media and claimed that Russia is on the verge of a cultural and moral “catastrophe.”

…The union said illiteracy, degradation of gender relationships, and depreciation of family values are features of modern Russian society. “All these diseases put Russia on the verge of disappearance,” is said.

Russians find Russian films humiliating and have stopped seeing them, the union said. “Generally speaking, modern Russian cinema is destructive. Not only does it fail to generate love for one’s country, for one’s near and dear and for other people – it in principle kills off one’s desire to live, work and raise children in Russia,” the statement said.

And inevitably:

The union appealed to President-elect Vladimir Putin to intervene. 

The head of the Russian Cinematographers’ Union is the director Nikita Mikhalkov; a recent article in Radio Free Europe has some background:

Despite critical looks at the country’s Stalinist past in works like “Burnt By The Sun” — for which he won a U.S. Academy Award for best foreign film — Mikhalkov is an unabashed fan of Vladimir Putin, even directing a hagiographic film about the then-president on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

Together, the two men last year launched a government advisory panel on the Russian film industry that will be headed by Putin. The move sparked fears among critics and filmmakers that the Kremlin may be seeking to harness moviemaking for its own ideological ends.

Mikhalkov was supposed to have stepped down as chairman in 2008; however, when his preferred successor (a man “known mainly for his roles in action movies and as the host of the TV series ‘Battle of the Psychics’) was rejected he retained his position following a court challenge and a re-election. The report further notes:

…the list of those who have spoken out against Mikhalkov is impressive, and includes such legends of Russian film such as film directors Eldar Ryazanov and Aleksei German, theater directors Yury Lyubimov and Mark Zakharov, and animator Yury Norshtein.

In 2011, Mikhalkov arranged for his poorly-received sequel to Burnt By the Sun to represent Russia at the Oscars; the decision was decried as “cronyism”. In the same year, his views on the tsunami in Japan garnered controversy; France 24 reported:

…On March 16, he delivered a lecture in the Moscow House of Cinema, during which he appeared to say that the earthquake and tsunami were sent to Japan to punish its citizens for their sins.

…Two days later, Mikhalkov clarified his position on his own YouTube channel. He said that the meaning of his words had been distorted, and that the Japanese had been punished not for their own sins, but for the sins of the whole world. To his detractors, however, his statement came as too little, too late. As one of his critics ironically put it, “God punishes the Japanese with the earthquake and us, Russians, with Mikhalkov”.

Paul Diamond, MassResistance, and Scott Lively

Back in November, I noted an article on the website of Christian Concern about Scott Lively; the piece for the most part was sourced from MassResistance, and described how Pastor Scott Lively had been the target of protests:

There have been reports that ‘Occupy’ activists in America have started targeting Christians, in a new development for the protest movement.

…Although his focus is on helping people live by Christian principles, Dr Lively was targeted because of his pro-family activism.

At the time, I thought this was just a piece of opportunism by Christian Concern, which is keen to drum up support through a narrative of persecution. However, I have since become aware* that Paul Diamond, who is closely allied with Christian Concern, actually addressed MassResistance in September:

On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 18, Paul Diamond is coming to the United States exclusively to address the MassResistance Banquet to reveal, explain, and warn us on “What is happening in Britain – and what you must do now in America.”

This is a breathtaking opportunity that you must not miss. Mr. Diamond is a gifted speaker and a committed Christian. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

Diamond apparently spoke on homosexuality and on the various religious liberty cases he is known for handling (I discussed some of these here):

First, spread the truth. We must move out of our own sphere of influence and create debate among average Americans about the harmful truths of the homosexual agenda, he said.

…Secondly, we need to keep trying to develop major media contacts to publicize the truth… For example, British Airways employees have been banned from wearing even small cross necklaces, but allowed to wear turbans, Hindu ponytails, or any other jewelry with religious symbolism. This made the front page of a major UK newspaper.

Brian Camenker (founder of MassResistance) and Sally Kern followed, and there were closing remarks from Scott Lively.

Diamond and Christian Concern have a number of US links already: Christian Concern takes advice from the Alliance Defense Fund and is a “partner” of the World Congress of Families. Last November, Diamond and Christian Concern’s director, Andrea Minichiello Williams, also forged links with the EDL-supporting Tennessee Freedom Coalition.

However, Lively is a particularly controversial figure – he is famously the co-author of a book blaming gay people for the Holocaust, and he has been linked to authoritarian anti-gay measures in Russia and Uganda. Brett Edward Stout noted the Russian situation in March:

Pouncing on antigay momentum around the 2006 ban on the Moscow Pride parade [blogged here – RB], American evangelist Scott Lively wrote a letter to the Russian people after completing a speaking tour in the country… Through his tour, Lively closely allied himself with the Russian Orthodoxy and presented its adherents with a road map to protect themselves from what they saw as gay propaganda. 

Of the several steps he lays out, the third is this: “Criminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality. My philosophy is to leave homosexuals alone if they keep their lifestyle private, and not to force them into therapy if they don’t want it. However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never [be] publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage ‘gay pride’ parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality.”

The full letter can be seen here. This is of some significance given that several Russian cities have subsequently passed laws along these lines: two men were recently arrested in St Petersburg for holding signs in support of gay rights (The bill’s author, city assemblyman Vitaly Milanov, also intends to attend a Madonna pop-concert in the city to see if he can find cause to have her arrested). Lively also has links with New Generation, a neo-Pentecostal church in Latvia known for its anti-gay teachings; Minichiello Williams met the church’s administrator and other New Generation figures at a church in Northampton in November 2010.

Lively spoke in Uganda in 2009; numerous sites have noted his report that local activists had told him that “our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the ‘gay’ agenda in Uganda”. He supports a “revised” version of the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill (without the “extremely harsh punishments including the death penalty and life imprisonment for certain forms of ‘aggravated homosexuality'”), although he is currently being sued by a Ugandan gay rights group in a federal court in Massachusetts for allegedly “violating international law by inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Uganda”. Lively takes the view that the existence of gay people in Uganda is the result of a plot orchestrated by George Soros, and MassResistance blames Soros for the legal case.

Meanwhile, MassResistance recently held a Tea Party-hosted “Patriot’s Day Rally” in Boston featuring Lively and the World Congress of Families’ Don Feder, among others (Feder has his own contacts in Russia). The event attracted protestors, who were reportedly abused by one of the speakers as “faggots”.

*Hat tip: Hope Not Hate’s Counter-Jihad Report.

(Spelling var: Mass Resistance)