Nadine Dorries Uses Anti-Abortion Activism to Deflect Attention from Expenses Controversies

Writing in today’s Daily Mail, Nadine Dorries MP explains the motivation for her efforts to reform crisis pregnancy counselling in the UK. She also complains of threats against her, including a cowardly email from a “former journalist” which fantasises over her burning to death in a car bomb.

Inevitably, however, this is mixed in with the claim that “pro-abortion zealots” are behind critical reporting of her expenses:

One particularly obsessive man recently followed me round with a camera, whipped up online hysteria against me and eventually had to accept a police caution for harassment.

….Pro-abortion activists deluge me with hate mail, or call on the police and public authorities to investigate me over some time-wasting, invented grievances — like whether I have a permit to hold a press conference on the green outside Parliament, or whether a certain salary payment to my staff is justified. 

Indeed, one member of my office recently left my employment because she was so fed up with this endless oppression from campaigners.

Because I am an MP, the police and other bodies have no choice but to investigate, no matter how frivolous the complaint: then the campaigners run off to their supportive friends in the Left-wing press to say that ‘Nadine Dorries is under investigation’, always declining to report a few days later that I have been cleared.

Anyone who has followed Dorries’ many abuses of the truth will find this wearily familiar.

The first paragraph refers to Tim Ireland’s presence at the Flitwick hustings in 2010, which Dorries found objectionable. Tim spoke with police under caution (not the same thing as having received a caution, which means one has been found guilty of criminal conduct), and received advice from them. He explained:

…I can say with confidence that the warning… amounts only to the officer’s duty under law to advise me of the potential consequences of being in the same room as Dorries at a further event in light of the fact that a complaint was made about the first. I can also say without fear of contradicting the police or distorting their position that it is not a judgement on my conduct at that event or in any other respect, because it is not a warning about any past behaviour, much less any pattern of behaviour. Police do not themselves regard my actions to date to be harassment or stalking, but they would not be doing their jobs if they did not advise me of the risks of being in Dorries presence once a formal complaint has been made, because it is from the moment that a second event takes place that the law might apply.

Dorries made the complaint because she wished to discourage scrutiny of her performance as an MP, not because Tim had done anything illegal or because she was fearful – this can be seen from the video of the event. It should also be noted that Dorries’ false accusation has been used by a couple of on-line thugs as an excuse to subject Tim to some real on-line harassment, in the belief that Dorries’s lies provide cover for their activities. Because I’ve expressed my opposition to this, I’ve also been targeted: writing under a fake name on Twitter, Charlie Flowers, who sees himself as some sort of vigilante, has accused me of “helping Tim Ireland stalk women” and subjected me to  months of abuse and threats.

The “salary payment” by Dorries to “staff” refers to payments of tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money made to a marketing company run by her friend Lynne Elson, including £10,000 for what appears to have been a two sheets of A4 describing Dorries’ opposition to abortion. Following Dorries’ lead, Elson complained of “intrusion” when Tim consulted public documents to research the issue. Police investigated Dorries’ £10,000 payment, but it was eventually decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed to a charge; Dorries has never attempted to justify or explain the amount paid.

Dorries’ other expenses scrape famously concerned her second home allowance. While she was claiming expenses for staying outside of her constituency, statements on her blog suggested that she was living in her constituency. She explained away the discrepancy by telling the Parliamentary Commissioner that her blog was “70 per cent fiction“, and that she pretended to be present in her constituency when she wasn’t in order to “reassure” her voters of her commitment. When this was widely mocked, she changed tack and again found solace in the “stalker” smear.

Dorries has a massive sense of entitlement as regards her expenses: such is her arrogance, she once posted a photo of her copy of the official expenses guide lying on the roof of a building after it had supposedly been blown out of her office window: “And there I think it shall stay”, she added.

There’s no reason to doubt Dorries’ claim that her attempts to reform laws around abortion go back to her experience of attending a botched abortion when she was a nurse. It’s also clear from the “email from a former journalist” that, despite crying wolf in the past, she has now come to the attention of one person who ought to be arrested. However, it’s blatantly obvious that Dorries is using her views on abortion and a real threat to obfuscate the controversy over her expenses, and abusing her current high profile to take revenge on a critic by spreading lies.

UPDATE: On her blog, Dorries writes:

Last week the Police rang after tracing the author of one of the death threats and asked me should they prosecute, I said no. I said no because I assume that people write such things and then probably regret it later.

That policy has changed from today.

This is baffling: Dorries reports Tim Ireland to the police for filming the Flitwick hustings (which Tim did with the organisers’ permission, by the way), but someone who sends a message threatening death is let off without even a caution because she “assumes” this person will “probably regret” sending such messages “later”. And the police are apparently happy to go along with this, despite the fact that this person may well be a real danger either to her or to other public figures.

Perhaps it would make sense if the person traced by the police has a documented mental health problem and is being monitored, but Dorries’ “assumption” rules that out as an explanation.

Another possibility comes to mind: that Dorries has exaggerated or lied about “death threats” (despite the reality of the threat from the mysteriously unnamed “former journalist”), and is now backpeddling.

Paul Ray Makes Link with “Newcastle Hard Man Paddy Conroy”

A website with the unencouraging name News of the World Online (no relation to the recently deceased Murdoch newspaper of that name), has news of Paul Ray‘s return to the UK from Malta:

…Ray… claimed that on his return to England’ along with the Newcastle hard man Paddy Conroy, will be planning to tackle the implementation of Shari law zones which the extremist Muslims intend to enforce in Tower Hamlets, London.

Conroy, described by the British TV station channel 5 as “the most dangerous man in Britain” in a European advert for a documentary which they made on Conroy, is also the only Englishman known to have very close association with the Chinese Triad groups.

Conroy, when asked about his association with Paul Ray and the Templar Knight’s which Ray controls stated that he were only the group’s cook, but had taken it upon himself to ensure that nobody gets away with harming Ray in any way.

While details of the NoTW Online story cannot be confirmed, Ray has posted a photo of himself standing alongside Conroy in a kitchen, along with a link to the documentary. Curiously, the documentary was made by Donal MacIntyre; MacIntyre also once made a programme about Nick Greger, who became a close associate of Ray in Malta.

Conroy’s life of crime is discussed in a 2007 interview for the Evening Chronicle. Although he admits to having committed acts violence, he assures readers that his conviction for torturing a member of a rival gang was a miscarriage of justice:

“All the stuff with the pliers happened, it’s just I wasn’t there.”

Ray, meanwhile, remains notorious over claims of a possible link to Anders Breivik; according to the AFP, Ray was recently interviewed by Norwegian police:

Ray, who lives in Malta, is widely considered to be the unnamed “mentor” mentioned by Breivik in the 1500-page manifesto he posted online shortly before carrying out the attacks.

Ray “was cooperative enough” during 15 hours of questioning over three days and “denied any link with the suspect”, [police prosecutor Paal-Fredrik] Hjort Kraby said.

Norwegian police are, however, still investigating whether Ray and Breivik had any electronic contact and Ray could be asked to return to Oslo for further questioning, the officer said.

As I blogged here, the notion of Ray as Breivik’s mentor is in fact highly improbable, even if it is “widely considered” to be the case: a shared interest in Templar and generic Crusader imagery is the only example of any kind of link.

New “Islamic Anti-Christ” Novel Series on the Way

Joel Richardson has good news for those who think that what the world needs is more novels about how current events are a sign of the Last Days:

THE JIHAD’S MESSIAH (JIHAD SERIES BOOK I) In a future when world power has shifted to the Middle East, and the Arab nations have signed a seven-year peace treaty with Israel, a radical Iraqi leader-known as Al-Mahdi, “the Awaited One” -rises to power promising to convert the world to Islam…

It’s a wearily familiar story – the rapture has occurred, but somehow the world has carried on more or less as normal along a path extrapolated from trends the author (a certain Nick Daniels) finds troubling today. Ten years ago the Left Behind novels imagined a United Nations in thrall to the anti-Christ; today it’s Islam. Doubtless in a few years we’ll be reading similarly mangled Bible prophecies about a Chinese anti-Christ.

The Jihad’s Messiah is published by Risen Books of Overton, Oregon. It is an imprint of D&D Books of Galveston, Texas, which was founded by a certain Diego Pineda and is known for publishing technical and training materials for medical writers (there’s no connection with Dungeons and Dragons).

KA Paul and Walter Fauntroy Join Forces in Libya

Among those recently trapped in (and now freed from) the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli was none other than the supposed “Billy Graham of India” KA Paul. Paul at the hotel with Rev Walter Fauntroy, who was in Libya as part of a “peace mission”.  The Daily Telegraph reports:

Speaking last night, Rev Fauntroy warned that he and the journalists may soon be in danger.

…”As a minister who believes in the fervent and effective prayers of the righteous, I have joined with Dr KA Paul in an appeal to people … to pray for deliverance for not only us, but the press corps with whom we have been quartered here, in an effort to carry out our peace mission.”

[Fauntroy] is president of the Global Campaign for Middle East Peace, a group seeking the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Paul has a knack for inserting himself into bigger stories: in 2006 he turned up giving advice to Dennis Hastert about the “congressional page sex scandal”, while in September last year he popped up in Gainesville, acting as a mediator between Pastor Terry Jones and Muslims. Paul also claims to have persuaded Liberian President Charles Taylor to step down, and he is reportedly “incensed that Condoleezza Rice and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo” took all the credit. Taylor has apparently confirmed Paul’s version of events.

Fauntroy, meanwhile, is known for his long association with the Unification Church: in 2009 he shared the stage with Rev’s Moon’s son Hyun Jin Moon at a Global Peace Festival in Washington. It’s a topic he could perhaps share with Saif Gaddafi, should the opportunity arise; a 2008 article on the Unification Church website, blessed with the somewhat less than prophetic title of “The Gentleness of Change in Libya“, tells of how

The younger Gadhafi happened to be visiting the Philippines recently, on invitation from the government, at the time that Hyun-jin nim was holding the Global Peace Festival I there. Through an introduction by the Philippines Government, Mr. Saif Gadhafi, seen as the second-generation leader of the future Libya, was able to meet Hyun-jin nim in Manila! We are deeply grateful that such developments were able to take place, as a blessing also from Heung-jin nim in the spirit world.

More background on that here.

Canadian Anglican-Right Activist Posed as UK Government Communications Official

Back in 2009, the Canadian website Religious Right Watch profiled a conservative Anglican organisation called the “Cranmer Foundation”:

…It ran into a spot of difficulty after setting up in January under the name “Canadian Anglican Foundation” (CAF) – which obviously bore more than a passing resemblance to the existing, official foundation of the Canadian church, the Anglican Foundation of Canada (AFC).

The organization tangled with the Anglican Church of Canada almost immediately by registering as a domain name “anglicanfoundation.ca”. Either this was a pesky attempt at cyber-squatting or an attempt to beat the official Foundation to the domain name; either way, the AFC attacked the CAF and retained legal counsel.

…Oddly enough, there’s only a single publicly identifiable figure behind the new Foundation – director and communications officer Mike Daley.

…Now, Daley is a notorious and self-pronounced “shit-disturber” on the Canadian Anglican right, who’s previously been behind projects like CaNNet (see the story of that particular site, in his own words, here)… Daley has been caught before registering domain names that seem, well, intended to cause confusion – i.e. cybersquatting. In advance of the General Synod of 2004, his allies in CaNNet created a website called “gs2004.classicalanglican.com,” providing an anti-gay marriage counterweight to the official site at “gs2004.anglican.ca.”

Religious Right Watch also notes several other websites associated with Daley, and someone has added a comment:

All of the sites are down. Michael Gordon Bracci, his real name moved to England.

Two years later, The Blog that Peter Wrote has a follow-up:

Lord Credo (@lord_credo)  is well known to those interested in politics on Twitter.  He described himself as “a government Tory communications guy” on his profile; now he says he’s a “former govt comms guy”.

…I had huge doubts Credo could possibly be who he said he was quite early on.  Many of us did; how could anyone be tweeting as much as he did in a job so high level, and be so indiscreet about government goings on.  However, we met and he seemed genuine. Very likeable in fact. 

…Whilst Mike was enjoying the free hospitality of another friend, he’d carelessly left his passport lying around.  His name wasn’t Mike Paterson – it was in fact Michael Gordon Bracci.

It turns out that “Lord Credo” has no links with anyone connected to the British government:

He’s a confidence trickster, he’s pulled the wool over the eyes of many people and he’s been left to do it by the actual Downing Street communications team.

…He’s taken hospitality and money from friends of mine.  According to his passport he has no residency or work permit to be in this country.  He has weaseled his way in to a group of people – including gays and lesbians – even though he is a traditionalist Christian and has worked to back Church homophobia.

…His motivation? Well he is clearly a fantasist and quite probably not at all well from a mental perspective.

Various personal details that “Paterson” gave to the author show he is definitely the same person as the Canadian Anglican Bracci/Daley, although these details were distorted –  information about his “late wife”, who had supposedly committed suicide in Sydney, fitted with a wife who is very much alive and living in the USA.

As well as boasting about bogus political links, “Lord Credo” recently claimed to have been diagnosed with a brain tumour and to have suffered a family bereavement – gaining sympathy and extra followers after each announcement on Twitter. Following his exposure, he posted an apology and has now deleted his feed.

I became aware of “Lord Credo” a few months ago, when he offered to bring complaints by Tim Ireland about Nadine Dorries’ conduct and its consequences to the attention of Cameron’s office. Tim agreed to send him documentation in return for proof of delivery, at which point “Lord Credo” became hostile and jumped on the smear-against-Tim bandwagon (a bandwagon which more than one cyber-thug has found it convenient to join).

Bracci’s pitiable story is wearily and distastefully familiar: a fantasist using the internet to construct a bogus grandiose identity (and perhaps self-image), which is then used to manipulate others.

(H/T @bloggerheads)

(Slightly expanded)

Fresh Interest in Peter Waldron, Now Working as Michele Bachmann Staffer

Early in 2006 I wrote a couple of blog entries (here and here) about Peter Waldron, a veteran US Christian Right activist who had been arrested in Uganda allegedly in possession of illegal guns and mysteriously released a few weeks later. Waldron has now come to fresh attention as a staffer for Michele Bachmann; Garance Franke-Ruta at the Atlantic reports:

…On Saturday, Waldron told The Atlantic in Ames that he was a staffer for Bachmann and responsible for her faith-based organizing both in Iowa and South Carolina. But he also declined repeatedly to give his name.

…On his website, Waldron says he was “falsely accused of being a spy by the Uganda government’s secret police,” leading to his arrest. One man who knew Waldron in 2004 told The St. Petersburg Times in 2006 that Waldron had told him he used to work for the CIA, and the question of whether or not Waldron has worked as a spy is prominently teased in the trailer for the movie based on his life now being promoted on his personal website.

(Andrew Rice, the man who spoke with the Times about Waldron’s purported history as a spook, on Wednesday said he had incorrectly recalled their conversation, but that his general impression of him was “that he was quite a vivid storyteller” and “a particularly flamboyant example of an archetypal character: the American who goes to Africa, a continent where a little money and a lot of talk can buy substantial power, in search of a position of influence.”)

At the time of his arrest, Waldron was hailed on one blog as being the latest victim of Christian persecution in Africa.” His allies seeking to free him said he was being persecuted for his reports in the “Africa Dispatch” newsletter about Ugandan opposition activities, and that he denied that he owned or was storing weapons…

(The blog cited by the Atlantic as having “hailed” Waldron belongs to our good friend Gen. JC Christian, who was inspired to write on the subject after reading my original posts.)

Waldron spent several years in Uganda: the 2004 report by Andrew Rice cited above by the Atlantic noted his presence at Pastor Martin Ssempa‘s church (this was before Ssempa had become notorious for his anti-gay “they eat the poo poo!” rabble-rousing). In early 2009, Waldron gave his version of the events on a Christian talk-show, It’s Time for Herman and Sharron (available at Warren Throckmorton‘s website). Waldon explained that he had been in Uganda as a missionary and as the manager of a software company, the Rocky Mountain Technology Group, which had developed a programme for tracking the distribution of antiretroviral drugs. The Africa Dispatch newsletter, from what I saw of it in 2006, appeared to exist primarily to puff this company, although it also contained some news.

Waldron further explained that missionaries from Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church had introduced him to a man who was a member of a Uganda-based Congolsese rebel group. This man had become a Christian and had brought his brother’s murderer to Christ, and members of the group began coming to Waldron’s house for Bible-study meetings. However, unknown to Waldron, the group was on the payroll of the Ugandan government, and was being employed to look for Joseph Kony in Congo and Rwanda. This was in breach of peace agreements, and the group was using the opportunity to “pilfer” gold and diamonds across the borders. One member of the group was found with weapons on a Ugandan street and mobbed, and facing torture he implicated the completely innocent Waldron.

Waldron was then visited at home by the VCCU (Violent Crime Crack Unit), which proceeded to beat up his female assistant. He was accused of being a member of al-Qaeda, a telephone cord was used to bind him – according to Waldron, the VCCU doesn’t need handcuffs as it usually kills its victims – and a gun was pointed at his head. At this point the police and army arrived, and so he was taken into custody and kept in a filthy prison cell. While there he was tortured, but his Christian faith and American self-confidence kept him going and he managed to preach to his fellow inmates. Meanwhile, his friends and ex-wife contacted Karl Rove, and once it was confirmed that Waldron wasn’t a CIA agent or bounty hunter George W. Bush phoned President Yoweri Museveni to demand his release.

One strange aspect of the story concerns Waldron’s account of President Museveni and his wife. According to Waldron, the VCCU is a

death squad that’s used by the current president, Museveni, and his wife Janet, to bring opponents in line.

And yet:

The irony of all this is that I was close friends with President and Mrs Museveni. I would call them today my friends. Mrs Museveni is lover of God. She is a devout Christian as it were, evangelical, a believer.

Mrs Museveni is known in particular for her association with Rick Warren, although Warren has tried to downplay this now that Uganda’s anti-gay hysteria has received international attention (Warren has an unfortunate habit of being linked to African presidents accused of running death squads).

Also curious is a quote in the Atlantic from Dave Racer, who lobbied for Waldron’s release in 2006; he now seems strangely ambivalent about the affair:

Dave Racer, who worked to free Waldron in 2006, said Wednesday that he was uncertain as to the veracity of the allegations against him or the counter-claims. At the time, there was, as he understood it, “an allegation that Peter was involved in gun-running, I believe he was accused perhaps of fomenting some uprising against [Ugandan] President Museveni.”

But, he said, “It’s not possible from here to know what was fact. There’s just no way to know. From here, it looked like he was a victim of political persecution.”

The passage of the years has made him even less certain. “I have no knowledge of what really happened,” he said, except that the detention “was very hard on him.”

Waldron’s 2009 television interview also discussed his political activism: he had recently been in Alaska to work on the state marriage amendment, and after working on Gary Bauer’s presidential campaign in 2000 he had gone on to work for John McCain. He had also written for the Washington Times on the “war against women”, reporting on Taliban-run Afghanistan, forced abortion in China, and dowry-related killing in India. The link to the Times is of some interest: in 2006 I noted that his Africa Dispatch newsletter was produced in Washington by Bob Selle, who himself worked for the Unification Church’s World and I magazine and for Rev. Moon’s then-named Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

In my original blog piece, I looked at Waldron’s religious perspective and associations. His theology draws explicitly on Rousas Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism, and libertarian rhetoric is put at the service of a theocratic agenda:

Families reigned supreme on earth from Adam until Nimrod (Genesis 10:9) and the gathering of families at Babel (Genesis 11).  Until that time, families gave birth to clans and nations but there was no central government.  All the people and their families spoke the same language, (Genesis 11:6), and dwelt in their own lands (Genesis 10: 31).  God, the Creator, was recognized as the Supreme Ruler and Sovereign Lord over the earth.

This changed, however, when it was determined by those families and nations on earth to unite in an overt effort to rebel against the Lord’s prophetic command given to their forefathers, Adam (Genesis 1:28) and Noah (Genesis 9:1-17).

… A totalitarian form of governance arises when the Word of God is compromised, ignored or denied.  A person will self-destruct from abuse of spirit, soul and body.  A nation will collapse under a “hard” or “soft” form of dictatorship, abuse of public or elected office, and a general denial of human freedom – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – arises. The source of one’s belief system dictates the conduct whether it be personal or national.   The same goes for the end result.

The Bible represents the absolute source for the guiding principles and precepts for all governments in man (self-government), of families (family government), churches (church government), and for nations (civil government).

…Laws and statues are added by local, state, and federal state governments to control human behavior that is contrary to the Word of God.  One wishes that it were not so but man rebels against God’s authority hence civil governments must construct laws to protect the civil society as a whole.

“Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.  Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.  He is God’s minister to you for good.  But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” (Romans 13:3, 4)

Waldron is also the author of several Christian books, including Rebuilding the Walls: A Biblical Strategy for Restoring America’s Greatness. This book, written in 1987, makes the case that “traditional conservatism has led evangelicals astray”, and bemoans that

…It was during the conservative administration of Ronald Reagan that trade was normalized with the Soviet dictatorship, that sanctions were imposed on South Africa.

Rebuilding the Walls was co-written with George Grant, a high-profile Reconstructionist. During his 2009 interview with Hermann and Betty, Waldron described the book as “timeless” and of relevance now that the USA was turning to socialism and away from Christianity with the election of Obama.

Waldron has also been associated with Dennis Peacocke’s Anatole Fellowship, a one-time Christian Right lobby-group within the Republican Party. Russ Bellant discussed this in The Coors Connection (1991), drawing on Sara Diamond’s book Spiritual Warfare:

Another group, the secretive Anatole Fellowship, was founded by Peacocke to “gain influence within the Republican Party” on behalf of the Religious Right…One 1987 meeting in Washington, D.C. was arranged in which”[Paul] Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation was a key player in the two-day meeting, which focused on issues ranging from school-based health clinics to 1988 electoral strategies to South Africa, Nicaragua and El Salvador,”according to Sara Diamonds Spiritual Warfare [Page 130].

An undated Anatole letter to state-level coalition members advised:

For Christians to be successful in influencing legislation in Washington, D.C., it is imperative that we have a national communications network to inform God’s people of issues to concern them. To this end the Anatole Fellowship has formed an issues committee co-chaired by Connie Marshner and Peter Waldron…

Pete Waldron is also a member of the Council for National Policy and the steering committee of Coalition on Revival.

Another undated Anatole Alert directed associates to support Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA, a military force supported financially by South Africa and allied operationally with South Africa’s military campaign to destabilize Angola and strategically control the southern portion of Africa. The Anatole newsletter also counseled against Senate ratification of the Genocide Treaty, an international pact which criminalizes genocidal actions. Peacocke was also active in recruiting and training anti-Sandinista religious leaders in Central America.

Libertarians and Southern Africa in the 1980s is a subject which I have written about previously.

(Name variation: Peter E. Waldron)

Stop Islamization vs One Law for All and Harry’s Place

One Law for All has published a report by Adam Barnett and Maryam Namazie, entitled Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right, which looks at the BNP, the EDL, and the “Stop Islamization” franchises. According to the executive summary:

Whilst it is crucial to combat Islamism and Sharia law and defend citizenship and universal rights and secularism, it is equally vital to oppose the far-Right. Islamism and the Far-Right are two sides of the same coin using similar methods, ideologies and tactics in order to promote their bleak and inhuman worldview.

I looked at One Law for All’s approach to the subject of sharia back in 2009.

The report has been promoted by Harry’s Place (here and here), and three of the individuals it discusses in the “Stop Islamization” section – Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and Stephen Gash – have issued responses. Namazie, who chairs One Law for All, is described by Spencer as “a Marxist antisemite”, while Harry’s Place is “a Leftist dhimmi blog… which dabbles dilettanishly in counter-jihad poses while seldom missing an opportunity to denigrate and defame genuine counter-jihadists”. That’s a bit too subtle for Geller, who simply calls Harry’s Place an “Islamic apologist blog”.

Wading through the invective, four substantive objections can be identified: that Spencer is accused of demonizing all Muslims; that Stop Islamization of America’s links with Joseph John Jay have again been raised; that Pamela Geller is accused of supporting Serbian war criminals; and that Stop Islamisation of Europe is accused of links with the European far-right.

The report quotes Spencer as saying that “there is no distinction in the American Muslim community between peaceful Muslims and jihadists.” Spencer responds:

See, to take one of many examples, here, where I say, in connection with mosques getting extra police protection, “This is a nation of laws, not vigilantes, and the principle of innocent until proven guilty still holds and must hold.” And here, where I said that “everyone is innocent until proven guilty” and “many Muslims are not on board with this supremacist program.” 

What I am saying in the quote is that the “extremists” are not one sect and the “moderates” another, such that they go to different mosques and have no truck with one another. In fact, they are all mixed up together, as numerous jihad plots in the US show — the jihadist turns out to have attended a local mosque, which quickly disavows him. 

It’s true that Spencer has occasionally referred to “Muslims of conscience”, but this is a very minor note in his overall rhetoric. Why does Spencer constantly make sarcastic reference to “misunderstanders of Islam” whenever an act of Jihadist brutality is reported? It’s clear from his and Geller’s writings that any moderate Muslims either don’t know their religion or are involved in deceit.

As for Joseph John Jay, he came to wider attention last year when some sanguinary quotes came to light (One Law for All cites one of my blog entries on the subject). However, according to Spencer:

John Jay does not actually have any role in or position with SIOA, but be that as it may, the report is lying about him. In reality, he has written, in his inimitable fashion, “i do not advocate carte blanche killing one’s liberal relative, nor all muslims. to assert differently is a lie.”

The brevity of Spencer’s response here is telling. Jay’s rhetoric was obviously violent, whatever he may have claimed since, and this is why Spencer doesn’t even attempt to discuss it directly. Further, Jay’s signature appears on the articles of agreement of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which runs SIOA, and he’s a member of SIOA’s board. Perhaps he doesn’t play any active role in the organisation, but why is such a person there at all?

Geller’s views on Serbia are also dealt with unconvincingly:

Geller has never defended Milosevic at all; she has only expressed skepticism about some of the claims made about Serbian concentration camps – a skepticism that many journalists and historians share. 

…Geller is not saying that Bosnian Muslims committed suicide in order to manipulate media coverage, but killed their own in order to create the illusion of Serb attacks on civilians and thereby manipulate media coverage. The Palestinians do that, so why wouldn’t jihadists in the Balkans? But of course, Namazie retails that Palestinian propaganda, so it is not surprising that her colleague would be a stooge for the jihad in the Balkans as well.

Spencer also provides a link to one of Geller’s interminable blog posts, in which she describes the trial of Radovan Karadži? as “a sharia court”.

Stephen Gash, meanwhile, has a response on the SIOE website to claims that SIOE has links with the far-right in Europe:

Moderate Muslims are the real enemies, in SIOE’s opinion, because they are the ones permittting and often encouraging the so-called radicals’ takeover. They are the smokescreen for Islamisation. Why else are so-called radicals gaining power in Muslim countries?

…One Law for All uses the usual communist tactic of guilt by association, using long past associations, if they even existed, to cast doubt on what SIOE and SIOA are about.

Stephen Gash has been on demonstrations alongside, not with, Maryam Namazie, but this does not make him a communist, nor does it make her sensible and rational like Anders and Stephen. It does not even make her and Stephen associates…

Enemies Not Allies is named after a seminar of the same name that took place in January. Spencer noted it at the time, complaining of

 a recent conference hosted by the communist antisemite Maryam Namazie and devoted to attempting to smear many anti-jihad forces, including the English Defense League and our own Stop Islamization of America, as neofascists…

However, among those present was Douglas Murray, who, according to Spencer, offered a

ringing defense (of me also, for which I am grateful) and denunciation of the Left’s guilt-by-association tactics.

This from a man who regards Rick Perry as the “stealth jihad candidate” for President. It’s Spencer’s usual response when an awkward association is raised – he’s accused me of the same thing (supposedly in cahoots with Charles Johnson). Of course, I’m not in favour of “guilt-by-association tactics” either – although it’s a vice that can be found across the political spectrum. However, when a socio-political organisation or movement seeks to influence public discourse in a particular way, it is reasonable to seek understanding by taking note of how the various players interact, associate, and influence one another. A moral judgement of “guilt” or “innocence” is not the issue.

Last month, Namazie’s co-author Adam Barnett made a late appearance as the named organiser of a protest by the “Anti-Extremism Alliance” against an Hizb ut-Tahrir conference in London. Barnett’s name replaced that of the original organiser (one of two ex-EDL members who were due to speak to the Quilliam Foundation a couple of weeks later) when the event started getting press attention.

Jerry Boykin Tells How Rick Perry Stood “Very Humbly” Before Evangelical Leaders in Private Meeting

Last Saturday saw Gen William “Jerry” Boykin discuss a private meeting between “Evangelical leaders” and with Texas governor Rick Perry in June – Right Wing Watch has posted a video:

I was with the governor back on the 21st of June as he talked to a group of evangelical leaders in a private session and said “I’m not doing this for political purposes.” He said, “I’m doing this because I know this is what the Bible calls me [to do?]: ‘If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves in prayer'”, and that’s what the Bible says. And Rick Perry very humbly stood before a group of us and said, “I’m doing this because it’s what God wants us to do. It’s not a political ploy.”

Boykin was speaking at the Gideon Media Arts Conference and Film Festival in North Carolina on the same day as Perry’s “Response” prayer rally in Dallas – Perry announced his candidature a few days later.

It remains unclear which “Evangelical leaders” Perry met with in June, although Boykin is particularly close to the neo-Pentecostal end of the Christian Right: he is part of Rick Joyner’s “Oak Initiative“, and both men belong to a strange “chivalric order”. If Boykin’s date is correct, Perry’s meeting took place on the same day that he attended a fund-raiser in St Louis for Missouri gubernatorial candidate Peter Kinder (this provided a photo-op for the absurd Jim Hoft, who was present).

However, not everyone is convinced that Perry is God’s chosen candidate: writing at WorldNetDaily, Glenn Beck’s “End-Times Prophet” Joel Richardson complains that Perry has links to the Aga Khan, whose moderate Islam is of course a ruse. Meanwhile, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer go even further, denouncing Perry as the “stealth jihad candidate”, albeit that he is “clueless” rather than an willing agent of the Grand Muslim Conspiracy.

UPDATE: Richardson now writes:

For clarity, I never painted Perry as being a “pro-Shariah” candidate. Nor did I attempt to portray “the Aga Khan”, whom Governor Perry is a friend, as some sort of secret radical Muslim. Thus any comments to this effect are simply straw man arguments to which there is no need for me to respond.

Here’s what Richardson wrote on WND:

…cause for deep concern is an apparently close relationship Perry has fostered over the years with a Muslim leader know as “His Highness” Prince Shah Karim Al-Husayni, the Aga Khan IV.

….It should also be mentioned that one of the doctrines espoused by Ismaili Muslims is the doctrine of Taqiyya. In simple terms, the doctrine of Taqiyya allows Muslims to purposefully hide or lie about their true religious beliefs to “unbelievers” or even Muslims of different sects… Of course, while lying in the name of religion may seem like a foreign concept to most, it is the principle of “the ends justify the means” that underscores many aspects of the Islamic approach to win the West.

Anonymous Threatens Nadine Dorries MP over Religious Right Links

Metro reports:

The ‘hacktivists’ group Anonymous vowed to target the likes of Barclays, Vodafone, arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin and healthcare company Atos. 

HM Revenue and Customs along with Conservative MPs Louise Mensch and Nadine Dorries will also be targeted in what is being dubbed OpBritain, the group said…

A press release from the group lays out the complaint against Dorries:

Many politicians holding office are attempting to enact policies based upon hard-line interpretations of the bible. This includes reducing the abortion limit and these politicians actively work with grass roots right-wing religious fundamentalists to do so. Nadine Dorries being one prominent example http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2011/01/27/churches-and-pro-life-groups-dread-any-attempt-to-change-the-law-on-abortion/. The government is also promoting the growth of faith schools http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7746263/Coalition-pledge-on-faith-schools.html and is supportive of the religious right-wing in the UK. Hard line religious leaders who attempt to introduce their authoritarian theocratic beliefs into UK law using the Conservative government should also be targeted. For a brief introduction to the role of hard-line religious leaders in helping shape UK law, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjp4A6jBWzo . Anyone who espouses less freedom for the sake of their own dogmatic, theocratic ideology and any politician who collaborates with such people will be a target.

The YouTube video is an upload of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary which I discussed here. Mensch is not mentioned in the press release, but presumably she is being targeted for supporting the idea of shutting off access to social media during times of social unrest.

Anonymous promises that:

As well as orchestrating direct attacks, we will organise leaks, expose’s and counter-propaganda activities targeted at mainstream politicians, and mainstream populist fascist groups (such as the EDL, CFI, etc). to help destroy the momentum of support for them. 

(“CFI” is the Conservative Friends of Israel)

Needless to say, I have nothing but contempt for this sort of nonsense: on-line vigilantes acting out a fantasy of self-empowerment while hiding behind keyboards is a pathological development in modern life, as I’ve seen before.  If you don’t like particular ideas in public life, you can argue against them. If you think someone is behaving badly, you can call them out on it. By contrast, the threatening rhetoric and tactics of Anonymous are a self-defeating and repellent parody of political engagement.

There is no need for “counter-propaganda” or for “leaks” and “exposés” – Dorries has already been exposed by the careful scrutiny of her statements and of publicly-available documents. She is, however, adept at using bogus claims of victimisation to discourage critical interest, and Anonymous have just handed her a gift.

(H/T @bloggerheads)

Janet Porter and Friends

Janet Porter’s Faith2Action organisation is currently promoting two projects: the Ohio “Heartbeat Bill” – which will has been forwarded to the Ohio senate and which will ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected – and her “Israel: You’re Not Alone” campaign, which was created amidst a flurry of media interest back in May to oppose Obama’s middle east policies but which hasn’t done anything much since.

Rick Scarborough’s Vision America website has the most up-to-date information on the “Heartbeat Bill Rally” (H/T Right Wing Watch):

Faith2Action is inviting churches and pro-lifers everywhere to the Heartbeat Bill Rally, Tuesday, September 20, 2011 in the atrium of the Ohio Statehouse in downtown Columbus from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.   The speakers will include pro-life pioneer Dr. Jack Willke, who founded National and Ohio Right to Life, Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, Wendy Wright, former president of Concerned Women for America, Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League, Dutch SheetsRick Scarborough of Vision America, Rick Joyner of the Oak Initiative, and journalist Jill Stanek.

…Other speakers include State Representative Lynn Wachtmann who sponsored the bill successfully through the Ohio House, Julie Busby of Ohio Right to Life, Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values Action,Mark Harrington of Created Equal, Bobbi Radeck, the Ohio Director of Concerned Women for America, Barry Sheets of the Institute for Principled Policy, Paula Westwood, of Cincinnati Right to Life, Lori Viars of Warren County Right to Life, Chris Long of the Ohio Christian Alliance, and Linda Theis, former president of Ohio Right to Life.

The day will begin with prayer at 7:00 a.m. with Dutch Sheets, national speaker and author of Intercessory PrayerDr. Tim Sheets pastor of The Oasis in Middletown, Ohio,  Pastor Corey Shankleton of Life House Ministry Outreach Center, Jodi Horn, Horn of David Ministries, and Robyn Morris of the Wilmington House of (24-7) Prayer.

It appears that while  Porter Faith2Action supposedly wants “churches and pro-lifers everywhere” to take part in its rally, the line-up is drawn from the neo-Pentecostal end of the Christian Right, in particular Dutch Sheets and Rick Joyner – Porter is herself a member of Joyner’s Oak Initiative, which I have discussed in a number of blog posts.

The “Israel You’re Not Alone” campaign, meanwhile, was launched in May at an event which included “three authors of Shariah: The Threat to America” (blogged here): these were Frank Gaffney, Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin (ret.), and Tom Trento; Boykin is also a member of the Oak Inititive, and he and Joyner are also part of of a strange “chivalric order”. The launch was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and – by a strange co-incidence – followed a room booking by the Council for the National Interest, which opposes pro-Israeli lobbies and policies. Some heated discussion followed, including a spat between William J. Murray of the Religious Freedom Coalition and the CNI’s Alison Weir (website tag-line: “I am not the British historian, please stop threatening her”). Murray accused Weir of hating Jews, and Weir responded by filming Murray on her camera; Murray then smacked the camera out of her hand and across the room, prompting Boykin to discretely head for the exit.

Porter is also a columnist with WorldNetDaily, and I’ve noted her work a couple of times: in 2007 (when she was known as Janet Folger) she accidentally cited a neo-Nazi crank in a column railing against homosexuality, and in 2009 she used her platform to fearmonger shamelessly over vaccinations against swine flu. She quoted the absurd Jane Burgermeister, and warned that

…the Army and National Guard are posting for “Internment/Resettlement Specialists” for “confinement,” “control,” “custody,” “supervision” and “counseling individual prisoners in rehabilitative programs.”

…Check out this YouTube video from a guy who spotted a “Mass Evacuation Bus.”