Bartholomew's Notes

From the Korea Times:

The prosecution Tuesday indicted without physical detention the head of a Buddhist sect for forging documents to get billions of won in government subsidies.

Ven. Woonsan, head of the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism, received 6 billion won from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a subsidy for the construction of a new temple in 2005.

Prosecutors found he manipulated the sect’s bank balance to apply for the subsidy, a prosecutor said…

Ven. Woonsan is accused of borrowing money from members to inflate the sect’s funds in order to gain a grant from the government. Apparently he has admitted it, but a spokesperson insists he did nothing wrong.

Taego (or “Taegojong”) is a form of Zen (“Seon”, in Korean) Buddhism; according to a popular book on Zen published in 2006, it is a minority group which allows for non-celibate ordination:

The Taego sect is headquartered at Bongwonsa in Seoul. Due to its associations with the Japanese occupation, it suffered great losses in the years since World War II. (1)

This appears to be over-simplified; from documents at the Taego Order website it seems that there was a schism between the celibate and non-celibate branches of Korean Zen Buddhism in 1954, after which the non-celibates were suppressed until the new Taego Order was founded in 1970.

Ven. Woonsan doesn’t have much of an internet presence; if you Google him the only thing that comes up is an account a speech praising Rev Sun Myung Moon and his wife:

President Remengesau [of Palau] and Vice President Mumba [of Zambia] joined together with the Venerable Woon San Lee of the Taegojong Buddhist Order in giving congratulatory remarks. They each, in their own way praised True Parents for unifying religions, bringing moral values into the process of governance and most importantly how they are blessing and healing the marriages and the families of the world.

Moon has also been praised by the Order’s General Secretary, In Gok Hong. See this website, scroll down.

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(1) James Ishmael Ford, Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006

(Hat tip: Cult News Network)

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A couple of my recent blog entries (here and here) have made reference to the International Freedom Foundation, a right-libertarian political organisation of the 1980s which operated in a number of countries, including both the UK and the USA. The IFF, as I explained, was opposed to apartheid but also opposed to sanctions against South Africa, instead taking refuge in the dogma that the problem would be solved by the free market. However, the organisation turned out to have been compromised by secret funding from the apartheid regime. In the USA this became a subject of discussion following the disgrace of Jack Abramoff, who ran the American branch. Harper’s magazine reported in 2006:

It started when Abramoff, as Chairman of the College Republican National Committee, visited South Africa in 1983. There, he came to know Russel Crystal, a South African intelligence asset who headed a government-funded student front group. Presumably, it was Crystal who in 1986 brought Abramoff in as the first chairman of the International Freedom Foundation (IFF)—a seemingly independent right-wing group headquartered in Washington, D.C., that was effectively run from Johannesburg and given the code name “Pacman” by South African intelligence. I spoke to a source who was intimately familiar with the IFF and the key players behind it, and who asked not to be identified. “The South Africans needed front men,” he told me. “Abramoff was identified early on as an ambitious, up-and-coming American conservative who could be useful.”

The IFF/Pacman advocated for the contras in Nicaragua and the mujahideen in Afghanistan. But its primary interest was South Africa, and much of the group’s energy was spent attempting to discredit Nelson Mandela and the global antiapartheid movement, opposing sanctions on the government and building support for Jonas Savimbi, the loopy but murderous Angolan faction commander backed by Washington and Pretoria (and upon whom Nikolai, Dolph Lundgren’s character in Red Scorpion, is loosely based).

Crystal, it should be noted, denies knowing about such support from the regime, although he concedes it may have happened.

As with some other “libertarian” organisations, the IFF also had links with organisations belonging to other conservative strands. One of these was a Roman Catholic group known as Tradition, Family and Property. I blogged on TFP a couple of years ago, when I researched a revisionist academic conference on the Crusades. (1)

I have in my possession a newsletter published by TFP in South Africa in 1986; page two includes an account of a visit to South Africa by Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus and Don McAlvany of the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor. TFP arranged for the delegation to meet a number of individuals and groups, including a pro-apartheid columnist named Aida Parker and “Mr R Crystal of International Freedom Foundation”. (2)

The TFP is known to be extremely right-wing, and it has been accused of cultish, bullying, and heretical practices. The late Penny Lernoux surveyed its role in politics in 1989:

[Plinio Correa de] Oliveira was fifty-two when he founded TFP in Sao Paulo in 1960. By then, he had accumulated a considerable number of hates, including the French Revolution, Protestantism, liberal Catholicism, and Marxism…A major part of TFP income comes from the landed proprietors of South America who, as might be expected, associate agrarian reform with Marxism.

TFP played a role in the 1964 coup in Brazil, and in Uruguay it allegedly received explosives from the Brazilian military attaché that were used to attack communist installations. The editor of TFP’s Chilean magazine, Jaime Guzmán, became chief ideologist for General Pinochet’s regime. It also made links with the right in the USA:

TFP also belongs to an extreme right coalition known as RAMBO that sponsors rightist protests, such as a demonstration against Chevron Oil for its business dealings with the leftist Angolan regime. RAMBO works with the New Right’s Conservative Caucus, and it was through this connection that its leadership became friendly with Paul Weyrich…Weyrich helped TFP organize a press conference in Washington to denounce agrarian reform in Brazil and the “trained and armed bandits coming out of the basic Christian communities.”…TFP in 1986 gave a banquet to honor Weyrich at its Bedford estate. Other influential American friends claimed by TFP included North Carolina’s ultraconservative senator, Jesse Helms…(3)

In South Africa, TFP created “Young South Africans for a Christian Civilization”. TFP boasted that the government had banned a liberal Roman Catholic journal entitled New Nation after TFP had published a booklet against the magazine in 1987. New Nation commissioned a research project on what had happened:

A comparison of the TFP booklet with ‘warnings’ sent New Nation by the Directorate of Media Relations, the Directorate of Publications and other state agencies shows a remarkable coincidence of assumptions, phrases, allegations and even sentence structure. In an interview with TFP (Durban), Dias Wellington showed a Unit researcher copies of letters written to TFP by the State President and Mr C Heunis in which they commended them for their work. Indeed, TFP even took credit for the government’s banning of New Nation in March 1988, claiming that the government had based its decision on the TFP report (see also The Citizen). TFP claimed that “at no stage in the work had the government been asked as such to act against the newspaper” but despite its unsuccessful appeal to the Pope to ban the paper “noted regret on the need for the banning”. This expression of regret fits in well with the government’s strategy to make it appear that bannings of newspapers are the fault of the papers’ owners rather than the government…(4)

TFP also operated in the UK, where it had links with the Conservative Monday Club. (5)

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(1) The conference was organised by Roberto de Mattei, who has written a biography of TFP’s founder, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. I noted that de Mattei is also an advisor to the “post-fascist” Italian politician Gianfranco Fini. A few years ago Fini’s Alleanza Nazionale party was courted by Andrew Rosindell, former chairman of the Greater London Young Conservatives and Monday Club member and now a Tory MP.

(2) “American Conservative Leaders Visit the TFP in Johannesburg”, in TFP Newsletter, 26, 1986, p.2.

(3) Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, New York: Viking Penguin, 1989, pp. 338-9, 341-3.

(4) Research project commissioned by New Nation, 1988. Undertaken by the Centre for Cultural and Media Studies, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. Re-posted at this website. See also Richard L. Abel, Politics by Other Means: The Struggle against Apartheid 1980-1994, London: Routledge, 1995, p. 283, 305-306.

(5) “Whispers”, in Searchlight, March 1986, p. 16.

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A couple of weeks ago I offered a few modest observations concerning the “libertarian” right’s involvement in Southern Africa in the 1980s, taking a British perspective but noting certain trans-Atlantic links. Various bloggers offered kind words (e.g. here and here), and so I’d like to present a brief sequel.

Last year, a prominent right-libertarian was accused of having proposed a strategic alliance with the far-right British National Party during the 1980s. I have no comment to make here about that particular case, but I was interested in the way the story provoked discussion about how the radical libertarian right related to other strands of the right at the time.

Most famously, there were a number of crossovers in 1980s between the right-wing Conservative Monday Club (which was generally opposed to immigration and “premature” decolonisation) and the right-libertarian Federation of Conservative Students. David T at Harry’s Place has offered a bit of commentary on this:

My impression was that the Tory Libertarians were basically pulling the wool over the eyes of the Monday Clubbers who were too thick to realise that the libbies were using them to gain power in Tory studentdom, so they could push their minimal statist agenda. The politics of the Libertarian faction was the polar opposite of that of the Monday Clubbers. What the Monday Clubbers got in return was a bit of nasty right wing rhetoric of the “Hang Nelson Mandela” variety: which was essentially a sop to their bigotry.

It should be noted that not all of the libertarians adopted “Hang Mandela” posturing, and incorrect assumptions in this area have in the past led to libel actions and payouts. However, it should also be noted that among those libertarians who did take this line, some are not keen for it to be known about now: the case of David Hoile and the Guardian is an example of this.

The same posting at Harry’s Place includes input from a second writer:

The libs ditched the MCers as soon as they could, and outmanoeuvred them, effectively taking control of the FCS at a semi-annual conference in Leicester in 1986 (I think it was Easter ’86 – my memory is getting fuzzy). Such was the lib strength that they didn’t need even those…who were part of the Thatcherite coalition but neither MC or hardline lib.

As the FCS came under attack from the mainstream Tory Central Office (which eventually shut it down), the libertarian perspective migrated to the Greater London Young Conservatives, displacing the GLYC centrists. The Guardian reported at the time:

The Greater London Young Conservatives duly continued their lurch to the right at the annual conference at the weekend. The Moat House at Stifford, near Grays in Essex, was decorated with posters supporting the Contras and Unita, and standing ovations were given to Ian Gow, MP for his denunciation of the Anglo-Irish agreement, Sir Alfred Sherman for his advocacy of market forces, and Teresa Gorman of the Alliance of Small Firms and Businesses for recommendations like privatising the fire brigade. The name of Norman Tebbit was mud following his withdrawal of Tory Central Office support for the Federation of Conservative Students last week, and some members refused to stand for a toast proposed to him by the handful of wets [i.e. centrists]…the GLYCs looks increasingly like the chosen haven for refugee[s]…from the FCS.(1)

GYLC activists included Andrew VR Smith, who does not appear to have been a libertarian himself but who worked closely with libertarians in the Monday Club and GYLC such as Adrian Lee (Private Eye magazine covered their antics regularly, and gave both men nicknames: Smith was “the stick insect”, while Lee was “Podge”). In 1985 Smith led a Young Monday Club delegation that included libertarians to Washington D.C., to liaise with Young Republicans and to meet Jesse Helms. (2)

Another organisation which saw “libbies” and more traditionally conservative strands work together was Western Goals (UK), the British end of an American anti-Communist outfit which had links with the World Anti-Communist League. An American book on WACL published in 1986 gives some background about the American origins:

…Western Goals is open about its mission: it seeks a return to the internal surveillance practices of the 1950s. One of its “documentary” films, The Subversion Factor, details the internal security problems that in their view have beset the United States since the late 1950s. It also operates a weekly radio program that is carried over seventy stations throughout the country and publishes a newsletter and such monographs as D’Aubuisson on Democracy and The War Called Peace, “a startling account of those who are actually financing the nuclear freeze movement.” (3)

It was founded in 1979 by Representative Larry P. McDonald, the former John Birch Society chairman who died on a Korean Air Lines flight that was shot down by the USSR in 1983. Various conservative Congressmen were involved with Western Goals, along with Joe McCarthy’s old sidekick Roy Cohn and General John Singlaub, who headed WACL (“D’Aubuisson”, of course, was Roberto D’Aubuisson, the El Salvadoran leader who terrorised his own country with death squads, and who was likely responsible for the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero).

Western Goals (UK) was established by a group that included Andrew Smith and young Tory libertarians such as Mark Haley. Of course, we should not assume that the UK branch subscribed to all the views of the US parent organisation, which collapsed during the Iran-Contra scandal (one of the group’s directors, Linda Guell, had assisted Oliver North). Western Goals (UK) continued as the Western Goals Institute, but the libertarians dissociated themselves from it as it became increasingly right-wing; WGI eventually forged links with Jean-Marie Le Pen and with the Conservative Party of South Africa (I may write more about Western Goals in a future blog entry, although UK libel law makes it a tricky subject.). These moves were particularly denounced by the libertarian Marc Gordon, who ran the British branch of Jack Abramoff’s International Freedom Foundation. (4)

While most libertarians were and are opposed to racism as a matter of principle, it should be remembered that libertarianism is not itself inherently “anti-racist” – as I noted in November, for instance, the libertarian Antony Flew (another one-time Western Goalie) is an enthusiast of the eugenicist Richard Lynn. Further, the right-libertarian obsession with economic libertarianism can sometimes be at the expense of civil libertarianism. More than once now, I’ve noted the views of Prof David Marsland on how to win the “War on Terror” (emphases added):

Halt or segregate air flights into or out of Britain by Arabs.

…Strengthen anti-terrorist legislation to allow on suspicion indefinite secret imprisonment (without appeal, without visits and without any privileges), tough interrogation, and where necessary summary execution by authorised agents.

…Reduce the need for prisons in Iraq by authorising summary execution of known enemy. Throw journalists, servicemen or anyone else who seek to file lying and negative reports about conditions in terrorist prisons in Iraq or elsewhere into these same prisons for an indefinite term.

Censor prejudiced and negative reporting of the war against terrorism by British media. Neutralise by military means any Arab media providing a propaganda outlet for terrorists.

This was after Marsland had received a “Liberty in Theory” award from the Libertarian Alliance activist and theorist Timothy Evans; the Libertarian Alliance became the best-known libertarian organisation in the late 1980s and 1990s, and is still going.

Marsland and Flew were both patrons of the now-defunct Right Now! magazine, which brought libertarians and more authoritarian-minded strands together in the 1990s. The magazine folded at the end of 2006; Searchlight magazine published a predictably scathing obituary a few months later:

Right Now! was founded in 1993…[It] swiftly became a forum for the remnants of the old Powellite [i.e. followers of the notorious anti-immigration MP Enoch Powell] right fused with a smattering of radical Conservative activists drawn from the ranks of the Federation of Conservative Students and the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus, not to mention a number of National Front and British National Party members.

…Ideologically Right Now! was almost a mirror of American Renaissance edited by Jared Taylor. [Editor Derek] Turner and Taylor maintained close contact with Taylor speaking [at] a Right Now! readers’ meeting. Turner reciprocated and most recently addressed the seventh American Renaissance conference in the company of Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and…David Duke. (5)

Searchlight also reported on a conference in 2006, held in central London:

Although it was advertised in advance the conference took place in comparative secrecy. Only when the tickets arrived did delegates find out the venue, Mark Mason’s Hall, 86 St James Street, the same salubrious setting as last year.

…The usual suspects were there in force. They included Allan Robertson (London Swinton Circle), Gregory Lauder-Frost (Traditional Britain Group)…[and] Dr Sean Gabb (Libertarian Alliance)…There was a large British National Party contingent too, numbering around 20. (6)

The BNP attendees included the absurd Rev. Robert West, whom I blogged here. One BNP member

…sat in from his colleagues nestled between Mike Smith of the Conservative Democratic Alliance (CDA) and Right Now! columnist Robert Henderson…

Many delegates were extremely well disposed to the BNP contingent, who in turn were clearly delighted to be hobnobbing with figures such as Gregory Lauder-Frost and an array of individuals from the Freedom Association and UKIP, all of whom knew exactly whom they were talking to.

The conference covered such subjects as racial IQ differences (Prof Richard Lynn), the “multicultural pestilence” (Dr Frank Ellis), and the “biological basis of patriotism” (Prof Philippe Rushton of the Pioneer Fund).

Perhaps we should conclude that all these right-wingers were, like the non-libertarian Monday Clubbers of the 1980s, “too thick to realise” that the libertarians in their midst had another agenda?

UPDATE: More here.

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(1) Stephen Cook, “People Diary”, in The Guardian, 14 November 1985.

(2) Stephen Cook, “Diary”, in The Guardian, 20 March 1985.

(3) Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, Inside the League, New YorK: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986, p. 156.

(4) Marc Gordon, “Le Pen visit”, in The Times, 4 December 1991.

(5) David Williams, “Right Now! calls time”, in Searchlight, March 2007, pp. 16-17.

(6) David Williams, “Right Here, Right Now!“, in Searchlight, Dec 2006 pp. 14-15.

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The Village Voice reports on three self-proclaimed “ex-terrorists” who have spoken in venues such as the the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where they apparently suggested Christian proselytism of Muslims would be best way to fight the “War on Terror” (emphasis added):

Critics question whether the three speakers—Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem, and Zachariah Anani—really engaged in the terrorist activities they claim. Shoebat says he’s a former PLO operative who terrorized Jews, gave his ex-wife “Muslim-style beatings,” and planted a bomb in a bank. Saleem, a Christian minister, says he was a PLO child soldier who transported weapons into Israel via underground tunnels. Anani says he’s killed at least 223 people and was “almost beheaded” in Lebanon for converting to Christianity.

…But questions about the credibility of the three men’s terror claims aren’t going away. The New York Times pointed out that the FBI is actively seeking anyone with a history of terrorist activity in the U.S., but the Times called the bureau and confirmed that there were no warrants out for any of them.

…In response, the men have spent significant time trying to prove that they actually did kill people, and that they used to hate Jews as much as the next Muslim extremist. “I planted a bomb in a bank!” insists Shoebat, whose handler, Keith Davies, has threatened a libel suit against The Times over the article that questioned his claims.

Davies has also threatened a pro-Palestinian blogger named Eileen Fleming, who has spoken to Shoebat’s relatives and written a debunking. He sent her the following message a couple of weeks ago:

Below is an article written by Mr Shoebat that refutes everything you say. We can produce numerous documents to prove every word of Mr. Shoebat’s story.

To avoid a lawsuit you need to contact us by email within 24 hours, it is now 1 a.m. aprox EST, so you can issue a full apology and retraction. We will provide instructions once you contact us. If you do not we will use the full weight of the law so that the integretity [sic] of Mr. Shoebat’s story is protected.

The article is entitled: “I Was a Terrorist: In Defense of my Identity, Story and Credentials”.

So, Shoebat thinks that if he can prove that he really was a terrorist then he should be compensated for loss of reputation over being accused of lying about it.

Incidentally, Daniel Pipes has staked his reputation on Shoebat’s authenticity, claiming to have seen “proof” of his story.

(Hat tip: Talk to Action – see here and here)

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Forget “Jesus Junk” – WorldNetDaily has “the ultimate gift”:

For a limited time, genuine Temple Mount soil is being made available exclusively to WND readers as part of a campaign of solidarity with the Mount, which is under threat by Islamists and by Israeli government laws banning Christians and Jews from worshiping at the site or visiting during most hours of the day.

Well, given that the gallons of Holy Land crude oil promised to WND readers have so far failed to materialize, dirt from the Temple Mount is at least a more realistic prospect:

This past summer WND was able to salvage a very small amount of soil from the Temple Mount slated to be disposed by the Waqf, the holy site’s Islamic custodians. The soil, which originates near what many consider the holiest place of the Mount itself, was searched for ancient relics since the Waqf numerous times has attempted to dispose of Temple artifacts.

One imagines Aaron Klein stuffing his trousers with the brown gold while interviewing local Islamists, or some such scene.

Show your love for Jerusalem’s holiest site. Purchase a Temple Mount solidarity necklace containing earthy soil from the Mount and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Act quickly as supplies are extremely limited.

Cost: $79.95, with some issues of Whistleblower thrown in.

The soil is being brought to the USA by Holy Land Earth, LLC, which garnered some media interest last year when it began importing Israeli soil:

Genuine earth from the Holy Land is available to purchase in the United States for the very first time. A state-of-the-art method of processing has been developed for the earth to meet American import regulations and be available for individual sale. Holy Land Earth comes directly from Israel and has a multitude of uses; it can bring a touch of purity to any area of your life. It may be added to a loved one’s burial, sprinkled on a nascent planting or held onto for keepsake and good fortune.

Stones are also available. According to the company’s website:

Holy Land Earth is certified genuine by Rabbi Velvel Brevda- the director of the Council of Geula, Jerusalem. Rabbi Brevda travels between Israel and America, and oversees the entire collecting, importing, and packaging processes.

The rabbi is apparently well-respected, but has a minimal internet presence (Geula is an ultra-orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem). The founder of the company, 25-year-old Steven Friedman, was interviewed by the Religion News Service:

“I’ve gotten e-mails from people that have told me that they are Jewish, they are Christian, they are Muslim, they are unaffiliated,” he said. “I’ve had a few Scientology people that have e-mailed me that they find this fascinating. Evangelical Christians have been responding in e-mails that they love it.”

A trend within Evangelicalism to appropriate Jewish artefacts and practices is something I noted here, and this is doubtless what WND hopes to cash in on. Of course, little vials of “Holy Land soil” have been available for years, and are particularly popular with Roman Catholics. The Wittenberg Door has one suggestion for how soil from Israel might be put to use:

Mixed with a little water from the River Jordan, you can even make holyland mud pies.

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An opinion piece in the Kampala Monitor accuses Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni of hypocrisy:

About one and a half years ago, a leader of a sprawling Pentecostal Church in a valley between Makerere University and Mulago hospital, boasted that President Yoweri Museveni in part owed his triumph in the 2006 election to his “holy” waters.

Pastor Samuel Kakande said the President had visited the Synagogue Church of all Nations during the campaigns where he was blessed to attain victory.

Around 2003/4 leaders of Pentecostal churches also reportedly offered to mobilise some four million voters of their faithful to support the President’s bid for a third term.

Museveni has also enjoyed the support of prominent American neo-Pentecostals; as I’ve blogged, he has recceived endorsements from Morris Cerullo and Benny Hinn, and there are links with Creflo Dollar (that nasty business in 2006 in which an American evangelist named Peter Waldron was locked up on terrorism charges and then released seems to have been forgotten).

However, Museveni is now planning a land reform bill, and a number of pastors have criticised it. Suddenly, Museveni wants religious leaders to concentrate on the spiritual side of things and avoid meddling in politics. The New Vision reported:

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has lashed out at religious and traditional leaders who engage in politicking over land.

“I hear some religious and traditional leaders commenting on everything. The issue of land comes, the priest is the one to talk first. Why don’t you wait for your time? Should I also start baptizing?” Museveni asked.

He advised the clergy to first understand the issues before commenting on them.

Museveni defended his rebuke a few days ago:

“There are many ways of removing a government. We have tamed the army and introduced democracy. But somebody can use inciting statements to create instability”, he said.

If religious leaders had complaints, they should forward them to him privately, the way the late Cardinal Nsubuga used to do, he advised.

But if they have anything positive to say about the president, presumably they should shout it from the pulpits…

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Back in December 2000, the first of several British men was arrested in Saudi Arabia following a number of terrorist incidents. Rather than admit to a problem with al-Qaeda, the regime found it more expedient to round-up some ex-pats, subject them to torture until they confessed to a plot involving illicit alcohol, and then parade them on TV. Had the regime gone after the real terrorists rather than innocent foreigners, one wonders if intelligence about al-Qaeda might have emerged that could have prevented 9/11. The men were released – escaping a death sentence – in 2003 as terrorism in Saudi Arabia escalated; the story can be read here.

One of the men has a letter in today’s Guardian:

…When we sought the government’s assistance in seeking legal redress after enduring 32 months of false imprisonment and torture in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis warned Foreign Office minister Liz Symonds to back off and told her it would be counterproductive for the British government to get involved.

But the Foreign Office didn’t just back off, it obstructed justice. When our lawyer, Geoffrey Bindman, won us the right to sue our Saudi torturers, the government granted them immunity. Our government looked the other way when we were sentenced to death and while we were being tortured, and then actually helped Saudi officials evade justice after the court of appeal ruled there could be no blanket immunity in cases of torture…The government has cheapened our moral values, flouted the rule of law and violated our human rights in the hope of winning favour and pleasing the corrupt princes of the house of Saud.

Sandy Michell

Mitchell was responding to reports from Friday concerning why the UK government had been prepared to block an inquiry into whether BAE had illegally bribed members of the Saudi government for contracts:

Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

The threats allegedly came from Prince Bandar, who is said to have himself trousered £1 billion from BAE. Of course, the story isn’t quite as fresh as the Guardian story suggests; the intelligence threat was reported back in November 2006.

Incidentally, Bandar isn’t the only person to have received secret funds from BAE; last April it was revealed that BAE had paid an investigator to monitor the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. The person they employed was a certain Paul Mercer, who is known for his anti-CND activities and who was an activist in Young Conservatives back in the late 1980s (he’s also a friend of Conservative Party shadow defence minister Julian Lewis). Details about how this came to light can be seen here; the legal documents are rather interesting. Not much seems to have happened since then, although an article by Mark Thomas from December states that “CAAT are continuing legal proceedings against him”.

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Meet Kendall Boutwell, of Brookhaven Charity Baptist Church, Mississippi:

You look at the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation, God has used children. God’s used animals, I mean, he used a donkey, a donkey spoke and saved a man’s life.

It’s been an interesting week for religion documentaries on British TV – as well as the programme I blogged yesterday, there was also a fascinating show on Channel 4 on the subject of child evangelists. This was Baby Bible Bashers, part of the Cutting Edge strand and made by BAFTA-winner Amelia Hann. The documentary explores the lives of three children raised to be preachers from the crib.

First we meet seven-year-old Samuel Boutwell in Brookhaven; from his church’s website, it seems that the young evangelist came to the notice of the American media a few months ago. The crew follows Samuel and his parents Kendall and Vicki as they picket an abortion clinic and go on tour towards New York, dispensing sermons and Jack Chick tracts as they go. Young Boutwell has been in fear of hell since he first disobeyed his mother as a toddler, and he is keen to save as many souls as possible:

If you don’t repent you’re all going to hell. Like I said, worms’ll be eating, worms’ll be down there. Theys going be long worms.

The Boutwell family and their support team take in a Philadelphia casino and Washington DC before finally arriving in New York, where Samuel is at first perplexed by the mockers and scoffers unworried by damnation and bewildered by a Hare Krishna procession and rival preachers, but his cute factor wins him a polite hearing from curious onlookers as he delivers an anti-evolution speech while perched on a wall. Alas, his father’s sandwich board condemning homosexuals to hell goes down rather less well, and the child is reduced to tears and calling for his mother as his father is harangued by an angry hippy.

Secondly there’s nine-year-old “Little Man of God” Terry Durham of Fort Lauderdale, who has his own website here. Durham was ordained as a minister by his stern grandmother Sharon Monroe at the age of six, and under her instruction he visits African-American neo-Pentecostal churches to preach, heal the sick (apparently, he can cure any ailment), and sign autographs. Monroe keeps a tight reign on her grandson, taking him to task when she thinks his performances could have been better. He probably needs a firm hand; as he explains to the film crew

The reason why I know that God’s speaking to me [is] that I can hear his voice. Sometimes he sounds like me, but I say “no”, it’s God.

Terry’s manager is his father Todd Durham, who has good line in T-Shirts and DVDs promoting the prodigy. Todd Durham is frank about his rather worldly ambitions for his son – as well as a church of 30,000, he expects that

…within the next three years this empire [will be] internationally recognised and renowned.

The programme describes Terry – who wears clerical robes – as “the world’s youngest minister”. That may be so, but it doesn’t match the achievement of soul legend Solomon Burke, who was a bishop from the day he was born.

The third example is Ana Carolina Dias (official website here), a twelve-year-old Brazilian who has been preaching since the age of three. Dias is a celebrity in Brazil, and she goes preaching with her father in the most notorious prison in Rio de Janeiro. She also has visions and engages in spiritual warfare, and is particularly close to her father Ezequiel, who was a wife-beating drunk and prison inmate himself before God intervened. Now he says that he’s the happiest father in the world; Ana responds that she has “a father in heaven and my father on earth”.

This isn’t the first British documentary on the subject; back in 1995 Christopher Morris made a study for the BBC of a travelling child evangelist named Shaun Walters. Five years later he followed this up with The Halleujah Kids, to see how Walters had matured. He found a young man who was mentally troubled, painfully withdrawn and paranoid but still hoping one day to pastor a mega-church. One wonders what a “ten years later” sequel to Baby Bible Bashers would look like.

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Meet Claude, from South Carolina:

I really like Star Trek, and they have phasers in Star Trek, OK? So I sort of imagine, you know, [Jesus] speaking…and you see like lightening flashes or bolts coming out of his mouth and when he speaks to them, and everybody blows up and the blood is just flying all over the place. Now whether that’s right of wrong, I don’t know, but that’s what I picture [laughs].

Claude was speaking to film-maker David Clews in The End of the World Bus Tour, a documentary which aired on BBC 2 a couple of nights ago as part of the Wonderland strand, and which can be seen here for the next few days. Clews tagged along with a Christian Zionist tour group from the USA and UK as it traveled around Israel; Claude’s vision of the Last Battle was inspired by a visit to the Valley of Armageddon. Other stops included an Israeli army base near the Syrian border, where the party donned military fatigues and spent time shifting bags of rubbish in a show of solidarity; according to one volunteer, “They have the finest army in the world…because they have the finest God.”

Clews took a human interest approach to the subject, focusing on why some of the group members had chosen to embrace apocalyptic beliefs – Claude (who is congenial) had suffered the death of a daughter, while another pilgrim, Barbara, had endured parental abuse and gone through six failed marries to older men. Based on this rather small sample, Clews concluded that the faith is about “consolation”, although he also chatted with a bright British teenager named Hannah, who appeared confident and well-grounded. One interesting feature of the tour was the chance to be baptised in the Sea of Galilee, near the group’s luxury hotel – tour leader Sharon Stolebarger explains that since the Galilee feeds the Jordan River, this was as good as a Jordan baptism. But surely the Christians on the tour were baptised already? Stolebarger told Clews that for most, the baptisms would be a “re-dedication” or “a commemorative thing”.

The documentary took a darker turn when the group reached Jerusalem, and found itself in the distasteful position of having to rub up against Arabs in the Palestinian part of the Old City. One pilgrim, asked if she would visit the shops or speak to any Muslims, was clearly a bit embarrassed by the question:

No, not really. I want to wait and spend my money over there in that Jewish quarter, and maybe the hotel or something. I’d rather spend my money there…I just like the quality of things better.

This, it appears, is the polite way to boyoctt Palestinian businesses. One British member was more openly hostile to the presence of Palestinians in land belonging to Jews and Christian tourists:

They’ve got Mecca…they weren’t prescribed to come here, you know. If they need another mosque, there’s the biggest mosque in the world, we Brits are building that for them in London.

While conceding that not everything in Islam is evil, Stolebarger explained that because “their purpose is to destroy Israel”, to her Islam “represents evil”. Barbara, meanwhile, felt the need (prompted by God) to take Clews and his crew to a razor-wire fence overlooking the West Bank. Gesturing at the plain beyond, she told them that

I guess you also need to take a look at God’s enemies, don’t you…the Palestinians.

Clews asked her if things were really that straightforward:

Sure, why not? Why does everything have to be so complicated? I’m also very tired of hearing people say, [exaggerated sneering voice] “Oh, the poor Palestinians…why, the Israelis are killing them…”

Asked if she would say that to a Palestinian family who had lost a child, she responded by asking if he would say such a thing to an Israeli family who “had been bombed first”.

…I am on God’s side…All they have to do is believe, just believe…

The programme’s angle meant that we didn’t get much religious context or information about the organisers – indeed, the words “Christian Zionist” didn’t appear once. In fact, the tour was organized by Koinonia House, which is the Idaho base of Chuck Missler, the Biblical apologist who was recently the butt of much hilarity over his claim that a jar of peanut butter amounts to evidence against evolution. Anyone wanting to go on this year’s tour can register here.

One incidental detail that caught my eye: the scene in the Palestinian part of Jerusalem’s Old City includes a Palestinian teenager hawking tallits, the Jewish prayer-shawls. A bargain at $20.00…

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An unpleasant scene in Krakow; from Haaretz:

Sunday’s incident in Krakow at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was rife with overtones of hatred. “The Jews are attacking us! We need to defend ourselves,” shouted Prof. Bogoslav Wolniewicz, to stormy applause.

About 1,000 people gathered for special services Sunday at the church, organized by the Committee Against Defamation of the Church and For Polishness, along with the anti-Semitic Radio Maryja. Local residents were informed of the service by posters that proclaimed: “The kikes will not continue to spit on us.”

The elderly auxiliary Bishop of Krakow, Albin Malysiak, was said to have been present and to have delivered a sermon:

“A man who does not love his homeland, but some sort of international entity, apparently also does not love his nearest and dearest,” he said.

The paper claims that

The speakers directed their anger at [author Jan] Gross, at Jews in general, at Jews from Brooklyn in particular, at Poles who are willing to sell them anything for money, at Righteous Among the Nations Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, at a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Jewish-Polish affairs; and at the newspaper that, in their eyes, represents the Polish left, Gazeta Wyborcza, and its editor, Adam Michnik.

Gross is the author of a book on anti-Semitism in post-war Poland (entitled Fear) which has sparked considerable controversy, and which may result in the author being prosecuted criminal slander (which apparently carries a jail sentence). This Spiegel article has further details.

However, Malysiak’s involvement in this event is rather unexpected, as he has been honoured as a “Polish righteous”:

Sister Bronislawa Wilemski was recognized as “Righteous” together with bishop Albin Malysiak (q.v.) and honored with him on Sept. 13, 1994. They are credited with saving five (5) Jews. Maria Rolicka, one of the persons saved, was in attendance. They procured them false documents and placed them in Helclow House for invalid people in Cracow.

One person (in the comments section at Harry’s Place) has suggested that, as Malysiak is retired and now has only an “emeritus” position, the journalist has confused him with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz. Dziwisz has been a vocal critic of the Gross book, which he claims has “awakened the demon” of anti-Semitism.

Bogoslav Wolniewicz, meanwhile, is better-known as “Boguslaw Wolniewicz”, an author of dense Wittgensteinian philosophical treatises. This is not his first public defence of Radio Maryja; Warsaw Voice noted in 2006:

Radio Maryja also reported that a group of individuals supporting the station had founded a Public Team for Media Ethics. “It has arisen from the need for strength, from the fact that an intention exists to muzzle the freedom of public discussion, in other words to introduce indirect censorship,” said retired Prof. Boguslaw Wolniewicz, who heads the group.

In 2007, Radio Maryja published a “statement” from Wolniewicz in English, in which he explains why, although an atheist, he supports the station:

I do not believe in God and I have always stated that openly but this special gathering organized by Radio Maryja is taking me by my heart (and yet I am an unbeliever) but those Catholic elite is not taken by heart or moved by it. Moreover, they are not only not moved by it but they want to destroy this. Immediately after the meeting they insulted one of the organizers of that meeting. I can see that this is a kind of wild hostility towards Radio Maryja which I can not understand. I am not surprised that this kind of hostility comes from Mr. Aleksander Smolar who is one of the chief officers of the “Batory Fundation” which serves Mr. George Soros and his unclear intentions regarding Poland…Mr. President! There are in our country and outside certain powers that, at any cost, want to destroy Radio Maryja.

Wolniewicz, and Radio Maryja, insist that accusations of anti-Semitism are slander. The charm offensive, though, doesn’t appear to have worked…

I last looked at anti-Semitism in Poland here and here.

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