By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - October 7, 2008, 5:46PMIn a much discussed story, the Associated Press reported today that John McCain served in the mid-1980s on the advisory board of a right-wing group called the Council for World Freedom, which has been controversial because of the group's aid to the Nicaraguan Contras and the presence of anti-Semites in its ranks.
Now we've gotten a hold of another fun little nugget that shows how whacked out this group really is: A newsletter from the group from July 1985 that lashed out at people who criticized Ronald Reagan for visiting the Bitburg cemetery in Germany, which includes the graves of members of the SS.
The Reagan visit was widely controversial among Jews, but the Council newsletter -- which you can view right here -- was less than charitable towards Reagan's Jewish critics.
"Those misguided souls who accused President Reagan of insensitivity for visiting the German cemetery at Bitburg are wallowing in tears of pity over the past crimes of the Nazi regime which collapsed over 40 years ago," the newsletter said. "They claim they want to keep the memory of the holocaust alive so that it can never happen again."
"Crocodile tears! It is happening again," the newsletter continues, "and again, and again, right now, in the modern world; only the crimes of today are not being perpetrated by the Nazis but by their philosophical and demoniacal soulmates, the communists."
McCain reportedly was still associating with the group a few months later: A States News Service article from October 15, 1985, found via Nexis, confirms that McCain was on hand at a Council awards dinner.
McCain told the AP that he resigned the group's advisory board in 1984, and eventually asked to have his name removed from the letterhead. But the State News Service article places him at a group dinner a year later.
The reason this is worth noting is that John McCain has been attacking Barack Obama over Obama's minor ties to former 60s radical Bill Ayers -- putting associations like these into play.
The group was founded by Ret. General John Singlaub, as a U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League -- which itself had a history as a home for anti-Semites and former Nazi collaborators. In his defense, Singlaub worked to clean up that element somewhat. On the other hand, the the group continued to aid right-wing death squads that freely attacked civilians in the bloody Nicaraguan civil war.
The Contra's activities were so brutal that Congress passed the Boland Amendments in the early 80s to specifically forbid the federal government from aiding them -- which led to the Iran-Contra affair and Oliver North's efforts to circumvent the law.McCain's Failed Debate Offensive: Attacks Fall Flat
posted by ZenPupDog @ 8:40 PM
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