Library Juice 6.2 - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 6.2 - January 16, 2003

Contents:

Links
Under-the-Counter Terrorism List for your Library
PBS' Bill Moyers Show on Libraries in the Digital Age, January 17th
riot librarrrian
Hello James
Letters on the damage to Palestinian libraries
The Dirt LOC's James Billington

Quote for the week:
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless
means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
-Paulo Freire, educator (1921-1997)

Homepage of the week: Heidi Schmidt
http://silvercloak.com/loveandpeace/
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1. Links
Links up front for a change:
-----
Eternal vigilance
Ed Foster
January 10, 2003 01:01 PM PST
WILL 2003 BE THE YEAR we lose what remains of our digital rights? It's all
too possible.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/03/01/13/030113opgripe.xml
[ Thanks Don Wood ]
-----
Library Public Policy Manual 2004 (satire)
http://www.bookslut.com/columns/0103/librake.htm
[ Thanks, Librarian.net ]
-----
Jessamyn West's Call for papers:
http://www.librarian.net/callforpapers.html
She is editing an issue of Reference Librarian on "Ask A Librarian" services
and the like.
-----
Old Words on War Stirring a New Dispute at Berkeley
By Dean E. Murphy, NY Times, Jan. 13, 2003
UC Berkeley censors a fund-raising letter by the Emma Goldman Papers,
which included an anti-war quotation of Goldman's.
Front page NY Times....
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/14/education/14BERK.html
-----
LISCareer.com call for papers
http://www.liscareer.com/
-----
Academics resist science censors
http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030109_unitedstates.shtml
"US academic researchers are resisting what they believe are
unreasonable restrictions on their scientific publications, imposed by
Washington officials as part of the 'war on terror'."
[ Thanks Don Wood ]
-----
Kid's Corner: Website Usability for Children
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020414.html
[ Thanks, rfay ]
-----
Chronicle of Higher Education on "Elsevier's Vanishing Act"
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i18/18a02701.htm
[ Thanks, Dan ]
-----
Security Alert! (fun toy)
http://users.chartertn.net/tonytemplin/FBI_eyes/
[ Thanks Natalie ]
-----
Index to Library and Library Science Resources
Good for browsing
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/~frick/fr-links2.htm
[ Found in my logs ]
-----
ZNet interview with Robert McChesney and John Nichols, about their
new book: _Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against
Corporate Media_
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=36&ItemID=2538
-----
Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books
http://title.forbiddenlibrary.com/
[ Thanks Don Wood ]
-----
Disappearing government data
(Search Engine Watch article)
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd1219-vanish.html
[ Thanks John Davis ]
-----
Total Commercialization Awareness!
By Katharine Mieszkowski and Farhad Manjoo
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/01/02/2003_predictions/index.html
[ Thanks Don Wood ]
-----
"Library Lookup: A Simple but Powerful Search Tool"
Search Engine Watch article about this browser toolbar that lets you
search library catalogs while you're shopping for books. A fine idea.
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/03/sd0109-liblookup.html
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2. Under-the-Counter Terrorism List for your Library
Hastily assembled by M. Rosenzweig
(Forgive the dearth of bibliographic info. This is guerilla bib
services....) Check and see if your public library has these
Beyond September 11: An anthology of dissent
Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta by Gore Vidal
America Besieged by Michael Parenti
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal
War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know by William Rivers
Pitt, Scott Ritter
War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq by Milan Rai,
Terrorism and War (Open Media Pamphlet Series) by Howard Zinn, Anthony
Arnove (Editor)
Terrorism: Theirs and Ours by Eqbal Ahmad, et al
Terrorism and War (Open Media Pamphlet Series) by Howard Zinn, Anthony
Arnove (Editor)
War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq by Milan Rai,
Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism by John K. Cooley,
Edward W. Said
The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger
Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed
Iraq by Alan Friedman
For alternative views in the press on the "war on terror" see:
Alternative Press Index : <http://www.altpress.org/> and Annotations: the
directory of the independent and critical press -- edited by the staff of
the Alternative Press Center, the Independent Press Association in
collaboration with Marie Jones, M.L.S.
ALSO: Contact the Alternatives in Publication (AIP) Task Force of the
Social Responsibilities Round Table of ALA for further
advice<http://www.libr.org/AIP/>
Does your library have these essential resources for citizen empowerment?
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3. PBS' Bill Moyers Show on Libraries in the Digital Age, January 17th
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:51:09 -0800
From: "Goldman, Ava" <Ava_Goldman[at]CalPERS.CA.GOV>
To: "'ncal-lib[at]ucdavis.edu'" <ncal-lib[at]ucdavis.edu>,
"'calix[at]listproc.sjsu.edu'" <calix[at]listproc.sjsu.edu>,
"'sla-sf[at]exploratorium.edu'" <sla-sf[at]exploratorium.edu>
Reply to: Ava_Goldman[at]CalPERS.CA.GOV
cross-posted.
Coming up on NOW with Bill Moyers...
January 17, 2002 at 9p.m. E.T./P.T. on PBS
(check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)
Public libraries embody the American ideal that anybody can read, watch or
listen to just about anything they want to. With publications and
broadcasting delivered free by the Internet directly to homes, is the
information revolution making libraries obsolete? As more people can access
this content, the copyright owners -- in many cases large corporate
publishing entities -- are looking for ways to charge fees. A growing
chorus of lawyers, librarians, and educators fear the implications of losing
free access to information for everyone. "Our information and communication
infrastructure is so central to everything we do," says former American
Library Association president Nancy Kranich. "But what's really underlying
that is the free flow of ideas which is essential to democracy." On Friday,
January 17, 2003, at 9 P.M., on PBS (check local listings at
http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html), NOW
with Bill Moyers takes a look into the digital future of intellectual
property and the debate that has pitted private control against the public
domain.
Tune in and share you views on the issues by joining the post-broadcast
online discussion at www.pbs.org/now.
Mary Alice Baish
Associate Washington Affairs Representative
American Association of Law Libraries
202-662-9200
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4. riot librarrrian
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 16:30:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Sara Pete <saralibrarian[at]yahoo.com>
Subject: riot librarrrian
To: feminist[at]MITVMA.MIT.EDU
hello all,
issue #1 of "riot librarrrian: breaking the binding of
patriarchy since 2001" is complete. this zine is
written by feminist librarians for feminists of all
kinds. issue #1 features a feature on dewey (by my
devilishly witty colleague jenn), (ms.)adventures in
library school, annotations galore, and more, more,
more.
if interested please send $1 (and if you're feeling
generous a self-addressed, stamped envelope which can
house a 4.25 x 5.5 zine) to:
Sara (or Riot Librarrrian)
120 State Ave. NE, #135
Olympia, WA 98501-8212
or
Jenn (or Riot LIbrarrrian)
1946 W. Bradley, #2W
Chicago, IL 60613
Feel free, too, to send us submissions. Because of a
dearth of submissions while working on issue #1, we
decided to hog the whole thing to ourselves, but we
are interested in including submissions in future
issues.
you can also send your submissions to
riotlibrarrrian[at]hotmail.com.
regards,
sara (riot librarrrian) pete
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5. Hello James
Selections from letters by the editors of zines, mini-comics, newsletters,
tracts, and other self-published periodicals in response to a postcard from
the Wisconsin Historical Society (formerly the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin), with a few words about WHS Newspapers and Periodicals librarian
James Danky.
50 cents
Published by Dorchester Dog HIp Press, Minneapolis, MN (2003)
For more information contact Chris Dodge, at dodge[at]utne.com
Here's what one page looks like:

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6. Letters on the damage to Palestinian libraries

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 10:27:55 -0500
From: Thomas Twiss <ttwiss+[at]pitt.edu>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Reply to: srrtac-l[at]ala.org
Over the last few weeks I have been sending out a questionaire by e-mail to
Palestinian libraries which were damaged during the srping of 2002 and
which are listed in the report I put on the IRTF website. So far I have
received 3 responses. I wanted to share those with the list.
In my message I explained what SRRT and ALA had been doing regarding the
destruction of Palestinian libraries and othere cultural resources, and I
told them about the relevant IRTF page
( http://www.pitt.edu/~ttwiss/irtf/palestinianlibs.html ). Then I provided
them with an excerpt from the section of the report dealing with their
library, and I asked them the following questions (with some variation in
language):
Could you tell me:
1) Is this an accurate description of the destruction of library resources
in your institution by the IDF during March and April? Is there anything
you would add to this statement or delete rom it?
2) Have you experienced any additional destruction of resources by the
Israeli military since March and April?
3) Do you have any explanation for why your institution, and specifically
your library esources, were targeted for this destruction?
4) In general, what is the current situation facing your institution and
its library?
5) Can you think of anything that international library organizations might
do which could help your library?
Finally, I explained what I wanted to do with the information the
instutions provided:
I hope to use this information in a variety of ways: I want to update the
report on the web, provide additional information to SRRT, provide
information to a fact-finding delegation of the International Federation
of Library Associations and Institutions, and provide information to a
Canadian film maker who is working on a documentary about libraries.
Below I am pasting the 3 responses I have received so far, and am attaching
the longer response from Bethlehem University. It is especially
informative and moving. The responses confirm the accuracy of our
report, indicate the appreciation of these institutions for our efforts,
and provide some additional detail about the destruction. I will forward
additional messages as I receive them.
The first message below is from Elizabeth Taylor who, with Rema Hammami,
was the contact person listed for the extensive reports by the Palestinian
NGO Emergency Initiative in Jerusalem which I cited in my report. The
second is from Daoud Kuttab of the Al-Haq Educational Television station.
The third is from Brother Neil Kieffe of Bethlehem University.
--------------------
Dear Thomas Twist,
It is very heartening to hear of your work with the SRRT and ALA and of the
resolutions they adopted. It is rare for us to hear of American
institutions that show any sympathetic understanding of the blatant
violations that the Israeli authorities are committing in the Occupied
Territories and it is important that these are documented and broadcast.
Although I am aware in general terms of further destruction to Palestinian
educational institutions, I am afraid I do not have specific information of
the kind you require. I returned to Egypt from Palestine at the end of
last April.
Rema Hammami lives in Palestine and works at Bir Zeit University, and I am
sure she can provide you with precise information. As she may now be
temporarily out of the country, I am forwarding your message to others in
the West Bank whom I think can help. I am sure, on way or another, we can
ensure you get the information you need.
Once again, it is good to hear that not all US institutions are silent or
silenced over the issue of Palestine.
With best wishes for your endeavours.
Elizabeth Taylor
--------------------
dear Tom
thanks a lot for your hard work. Basically all the information you quoted
from is correct. The library issue needs to be clarified, this is an
internal data base of our own programs so what was destroyed was the data
base which allowed us to easily retrive say a short documentgary that dealt
with the issue of destertification without having to personally check all
the tapes.
We have since come back on the air and fixed up what was destroyed.
I hope this answered your questions. As to what can be done by the
libraries, the best thing I can think of wouldbe if theycan contribute
books and other periodicals that have to do with press and media.
Daoud
daoud kuttab
--------------------
Bethlehem University
P.O. Box 9 Phone: 972-2-274-1241
Bethlehem, via Israel Fax: 972-2-274-4440
Mr. Tom Twiss
Government Information Librarian
G-22 Hillman Library
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
U.S.A.
Dear Mr. Twiss:
I was very pleased to receive your message and learn of your interest in
Palestinian Libraries and the Bethlehem University Library in particular.
I was even thrilled when I read the resolutions of the of the American
Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table and the ALA
itself. One of the dominant attitudes of Palestinians and even of
American expatriates serving in Palestine is that "no one knows and no one
cares." The statement with documentation in support of the resolution
proves that there are people who know and the resolutions demonstrate that
there are people who care.
Congratulations on the extensive work that has gone into gathering the
information on the devastation which struck Palestinian institutions
during the spring and summer of 2002. We are deeply appreciative of your
efforts and the very clear and accurate statement of the situation and
your attempt to bring this horrible situation to the attention of those
who can do something about it.
I am pleased to be able to respond to your questions. You asked:
Could you tell me:
1. Is this an accurate description of the destruction of library resources
in your university by the IDF during March and April?
Yes, I can attest to the accuracy of the description since I gathered the
data and recorded it myself.
Is there anything you would add or delete to this statement?
No, I believe it simply lists the facts and they speak for themselves.
2) Have you experienced any additional destruction of resources by the
Israeli military since March and April?
Since the withdrawal of the Israeli army in May 2002 Bethlehem University
has not suffered any additional damage to its physical facilities.
However, Bethlehem University, along with everyone in Bethlehem, suffered
from sixty days of intensive "house arrest" during the months of June and
July and another thirty days in November-December. I use the term "house
arrest" rather than curfew, the word that is usually used by Israeli
officials, to describe the situation in which everyone in Bethlehem is
required to remain in his/her home for 24 hours per day for days at a
time. People are permitted out for 4 or 5 hours each 5 or 6 days to shop
for food and take care of as many essentials as you can in 5 hours. I
object to the use of the word curfew because in the USA, and even in
Israel, the word "curfew" is understood to mean that people should be
inside by 10 PM or some evening hour. However, during these periods of
house arrest no business, school, university, store, restaurant, etc. can
function. The Bethlehem University Library, along with all other university
activities, ceases to function during these periods. Just to focus on the
library, none of its usual tasks could continue. No books were ordered,
none received, no periodicals were put out for use, no circulation took
place, and none of the references were consulted. In the spring of 2002
Bethlehem University received no mail for a period of three months due to
blockage by Israel. Of course, that meant no periodicals could reach the
library. Since May mail has arrived in Bethlehem about once per month.
Bethlehem University continued to pay salaries to all the library
employees during these periods even though no services were provided by
the staff because the employees need to survive. Bethlehem University
estimates that the sixty days lost in the Spring of 2003 cost the
university approximately $300,000 in lost income from auxiliary
enterprises and in payments for services not received or which could not
be used.
3) Do you have any explanation for why your institution, and specifically
your library resources, might have been targeted for this destruction?
My explanation for the damage to Bethlehem University and our library is
that it is part of the overall policy of the current government of Israel
to eventually incorporate all of the West Bank and Gaza into the State of
Israel. This government is step-by-step doing everything possible to
destroy the infrastructure of a future Palestinian state. The systematic
destruction of all records in municipalities, ministries, businesses and
universities has no goal other than to make it as difficult as possible
for the Palestinians to form a viable society. I think the immediate goal
is to make life so difficult that the more affluent, better educated and
more creative members of the society will give up on life here and
emigrate to another country. I believe that the policy of the current
Israeli government is to use the guise of responding to terrorism (for
which its occupation is responsible) to piece by piece take over the
entire Palestinian territory, new settlement by new settlement, new road
by new road, house by house, olive grove by olive grove, until the entire
land has been incorporated into Israel. Talk of transfer of the
Palestinian population to other countries (read ethnic cleansing) is
becoming more and more common in the Israeli press. By portraying the
response of Palestinians to the state-sponsored terrorism that Israel has
inflicted on them as the cause, not the effect, Israel has managed to keep
the attention of the world focused on Israeli suffering while using the
conflict as an opportunity to slowly complete the incorporation of all of
the land of historical Palestine into Israel. Of course Israel denies
such a policy, but the long-term strategy of creating "facts on the
ground" over the past 35 years makes its real intention extremely clear.
Just look at a map. The destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure,
including libraries, is just part of the plan, which is to destroy as much
as possible every time there is an excuse. Each time there is a lull in
attacks by Palestinians the Israeli army begins to assassinate Palestinian
leaders to stir up more suicide attacks, which will provide an opportunity
to increase the burden on the Palestinians. There has not been a suicide
bombing in a month, but today (December 26, 2002) the Israelis killed nine
Palestinians and the activists have now vowed "revenge." There will be no
mention in the US press today about the nine Palestinians killed, but when
a suicide bombing takes place in a few days it will be spread in headlines
in all the American papers and the President of the United States will say
that "Israel has the right to defend itself." for the umpteenth time and
Sharon will order more destruction of the Palestinians infrastructure.
The cycle has been going on for years and with each repetition Israel has
established its grasp on more of Palestine.
4) In general, what is the current situation facing your institution and
its library?
Bethlehem University managed to complete the Spring 2002 Semester, which
was scheduled to end on May 28th, on July 29th. Graduation ceremonies for
the Spring Semester were held on November 3rd. It was impossible to have
a summer session in 2002. The Israeli forces left Bethlehem on August
22nd, but reoccupied the city on November 22nd. During that window of
opportunity the university managed to get in 12 weeks of classes, but with
the November invasion everyone in Bethlehem was subjected again to house
arrest as described in #2 above. After three solid weeks of lockdown
people were allowed to leave their homes for about 5 hours per day. The
university took advantage of the opportunity to begin teaching again using
45-minute class periods and reducing the breaks between classes to 5
minutes. Bethlehem University anticipated that the Israeli army would
again invade Bethlehem this year and delayed to beginning of classes by
two weeks so the faculty could prepare extended course outlines which
included more comprehensive assignments that the students should work on
in the event they could not reach the campus. For twelve weeks that
preparation was unnecessary, but on November 22nd the plan was suddenly
put into operation. In general it has been successful. The library
resources have been extremely important during this interval. During the
brief periods that students can get to the university they have been
withdrawing large numbers of books from the library so they will have the
necessary materials to study and prepare reports on their own. Assignments
have also been posted on the Internet, but only about 36% of the student
body has access to the Internet from their homes, so that electronic
teaching has been limited.
5) Can you think of anything that international library organizations might
do which could help your library?
Keeping the international library organizations informed of what is
happening in Palestine is extremely important. Encouraging the membership
to contact their legislators and informing them of their position on the
destructive forces which Israel is using to try to minimize the
Palestinian population. While the majority of Israelis are in favor of a
Palestinian state along side of Israel, that is not the direction that the
current government is moving. The current government continues to agitate
the extremist elements of the Palestinian society in order to keep up the
attacks on the Israeli public, which then is used to justify more
agitation.
I will also consult with the Director of our Library to see if he has more
specific recommendations concerning what international library
organizations might be able to do.
I hope that the information above is helpful. We are extremely grateful
for what you are doing. If you need any more information please feel free
to contact me.
Sincerely yours,
        Br. Neil Kieffe, FSC
        Vice President for Academic Affairs
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +
Tom's page at http://www.pitt.edu/~ttwiss/irtf/palestinianlibs.html
links to the ALA and SRRT resolutions, a statment supporting the
resolutions with documentation, a report on damage to Palestinian
libraries and archives during the Spring of 2002, and a list of
organizations which provide aid to Palestinian libraries.
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7. The Dirt LOC's James Billington

[SRRTAC-L:9749] My New Year's resolution....
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 00:36:08 -0500
From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra[at]earthlink.net>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Reply to: srrtac-l[at]ala.org
My New Year's resolution (if I had such) would be to expose the
mythos of the Library of Congress (LOC), the tragicomic misleadership
of LOC, its cover-up by ALA, and its betrayal of the principles of
librarianship and archivism.
If I had my druthers, I would see them expelled from ALA for complete
indifference or hostility to our policies. That of course is less
likely to happen than my auto-da-fe at a special Council session or a
show trial of SRRT.
On closer examination, it's far from petty to make this New Year resolution.
It is inextricably linked to the weak underpinnings of the library
profession in the face imposition of of post-Constitutional rule by
the military junta in Washington.
Besides the fact that Mr. Billington has stolen the archives
belonging to my institution and then allowed, facilitated and
possibly profited from the enabling of the rights to publication of a
political party's archives to be privatized and SOLD commercially at
an enormous price per copy, without ever even recognizing the
existence of the originating organization which is his obsession,
the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA), which left these papers to the
Reference Center for Marxist Studies of which I am director...
Besides this, as well, there is ample evidence of a whole history of
corruption, bribes, commercial interests determining content,
political partisanship in a guise of neutrality, participation in
espionage and psychological warfare, policies dictated by
corporations, the military or the intelligence community, the use of
his position for personal advancement, patronage and enrichment and a
hundred other scandals which I pray Nicholson Baker will skillfully
and wittiily expose in his forthcoming book on LOC of which I have
just been informed by a colleague is in the works.
In the meantime....here's a few bones to chew on. They've been
around, but the USA PATRIOT Act and the impending war of civilization
versus the bad guys impels me to bring them to your attention,
especially if you think libraries and politics "don't mix".
=======================================================================
James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and the CIA
Here's a column which shows that the patrician non-librarian of
Congress, Dr. James H. Billington, has created a regime at LC based on
his close connections to the CIA during the Cold War (and after its
'official ending'). There are many ramifications of this. But under
the present situation, in which we are, as librarians, being coerced
into being accomplices of police and espionage operations, it is good
to remember who is at the helm as the symbolic leader in the world of
US libraries.
The Library of Congress, our largest and greatest collection of
media of knowledge (and ignorance), our flagship library, is led by a
man who has no regard for the profession of librarians and archivists
or for their knowledge and expertise or, most pertinently here, for
their codes of ethics and principles.
He is a partisan Cold War / anti-progressive/ reactionary dinosaur,
closely attached to the CIA, which is one of the organizations
against which, under the USA PATRIOT Act we must now guard our own
freedom as citizens.
Read this "insiders" report from the belly of the beast, by a
librarian who must, unfortunately, remain anonymous.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking The Unspeakable
by Librarian X
This is probably the column that will get me whacked. There are two
ways to know who I am: wait for my book, or read in an obit "LC
librarian found in a ditch, hands tied behind back, shot in the back
of the head. Officially ruled a suicide." Drugs, murder, LSD,
domestic spying, and all the other crap that goes along with the CIA.
I couldn't write a better screenplay.
Oh So Social
When Allen Dulles (Princeton '14) became the head of the fledgling
CIA he was the right sleaze bag. His attachment to Prescott Bush and
Herbert Walker actually leads to Nazi German. For an interesting
article on how the Bush family, through Dulles the attorney, made
their fortune in 1942 off Holocaust loot follow this. (For a
refresher on LC Holocaust loot click this.) Whereas those
incriminating papers are in the National Archives, you have to dig
deep in the stacks (a shameless plug for me) for this reference
information.
Their Names Are Mudd
Dulles wanted to have a second opinion, so to say, from civilians far
away from the bureaucratic world of Langley. To this end he created
the Princeton Consultants, a group of Princeton professors who met
for two days at a time four times a year to review and assess
intelligence of the highest level. They also got fifty bucks a day.
They met with Dulles in the Seeley G. Mudd Library--which is maybe
where Billington got the Library/CIA connection idea. This may sound
like a group of cafe Marxist pseudo-intellectuals circa 1900 sitting
around a table, talking "policy" in hushed tones, but don't be fooled.
Murder Inc. At A Library?
Evidence points to the Consultants reviewing state assassinations as
well as tanking the Chilean economy as a means to discredit Allende
(later simply opting to whack the guy). Marchetti, in The CIA and the
Cult of Intelligence, links the Consultants directly to the Board
(and Office) of National Estimates, an innocent sounding name that
Billington uses in his official biography on the Library's website
(at least until now). Marchetti believes the Consultants were
involved in murdering and overthrowing Mossadegh of Iran in 1953,
Patrice Lumumba in the Congo in 1961, Joao Goulart in Brazil in 1964,
Juan Balaguer of the Dominican Republic in 1965, Cheddi Jagan of
Guyana in 1966, as well as Allende in 1973. There are also reports of
the Consultants being involved in the Phoenix Program during the
Vietnam War, in which 20,000 Vietnamese were killed. Senator Bob
Kerry's raid, in which he murdered two grandparents and their three
grandchildren, was a Phoenix Program operation. It is just this sort
of immoral idiocy that contributed to smearing the names of all of us
who served in Vietnam.
The Right Stuff (For Jail)
Marchetti gives us a good description of the mentality of a CIA
operator involved in this sort of work. These people adopt an
image--in this case "scholar"--and start believing their own fronts.
Here are some choice quotes:
This is the clandestine mentality: a separation of personal morality
and conduct from actions, no matter how debased, which are taken in
the name of the United States government and, more specifically, the
Central Intelligence Agency. (page 248)
Even Senator Harold Hughes said: "I am fearful of a man whose
experience has been so largely devoted to clandestine operations
involving the use of force and manipulation of factions in foreign
governments. Such a man may become so enamored with these techniques
that he loses sight of the higher purpose and moral constraints which
should guide our country's activities abroad." (Page 249)
According to Billington's mentor and recruiter Allen Dulles: "In my
ten years with the Agency I only recall one case of many hundreds
where a man who had joined the Agency felt some scruples about the
activities he was asked to carry on." (Page 253)
As you can see this is Orwell's concept of "double-think," in which
an individual could hold two contradictory thoughts as compatible.
"Truth" and "morality" are relevant terms.
Day Tripper
Dulles initiated a truly bizarre and immoral project, known as
MK-ULTRA. The purpose was to find drugs that could control a subject,
indeed an entire population if necessary. Read the link provided
above, but also check out John Marks The Search for the Manchurian
Candidate : CIA and Mind Control and Martin Lee's Acid Dreams. The
drug of choice was LSD. Interestingly, the proving grounds included
Harvard and Princeton (Billington teaching at both). What is most
interesting is that when the CIA ran out of "volunteers," Dulles
authorized involuntary testing, CIA staff being fair game. Harvard
and Princeton were also turned into proving grounds. One noted
volunteer is Ted "Unabomber" Kaczynski. This also makes me wonder
what really happened to the Princeton professor John "A Beautiful
Mind" Nash. He was there at the right time.
A Man Of Peace
It takes a strong stomach to go on, but I will. With the fight going
on in Nicaragua with the Contras, something had to be done about
those pesky peaceniks. To that end, Billington worked with the CIA
front World Without War Council. Maybe it was the draft dodging
(e.g., fight communism with your mouth) that prompted Billington to
"stop the violence," or maybe it was the desire for another black
ops. The WWWC is funded by the U.S. Institute of Peace, which, by
law, is part of the intelligence community. The law specifies that
"the director of Central Intelligence may assign officer and
employees" as well as use classified material. In short, the WWWC and
USIP were vehicles to infiltrate and discredit peace movements
opposed to intervention, using the old "commie dupe" line. Billington
showed his real colors regarding peace, though, when he delivered a
speech supporting SDI (Star Wars) for the USIP to Congress. All this
can be found in Richard Hatch and Sara Diamond's "The World Without
War Council" Covert Action Intelligence Bulletin, Number 31 (Winter
1989).
Play It Again Madison
The weirdest part about all this is that the WWWC operates through
the James Madison Foundation. Say what!!?? Well....what, then, is the
James Madison Council? A blast from the past? An inside joke? But
first. When not attacking liberal causes and trying to bring
non-government organizations (NGOs) into contact with the State
Department, the WWWC was arranging for CIA assets to speak through
CARP and CAUSA, fronts funded by the Unification Church. Can it get
worse? The WWWC also managed the American Initiatives Project (AIP),
officially stating:
"resources will be brought to bear in the main arenas in which US
foreign policy is shaped with leaders of public affairs,
organizations in the world affairs field; with media, both electronic
and the major opinion journals; with government, in both the
legislative and executive branches."
You know, maybe it is just me, but didn't the Church Committee of
1973 ban this sort of domestic spying and manipulation by the CIA?
The reason for the hearings regarded the CIA's spying and
manipulation of the Vietnam antiwar movement.
Quo Vadis?
In ending this overly long column, we all need to ask just what is
this "former" CIA operator doing at the Library of Congress? What is
with the Russian Leadership Program as well as business advising for
Russia? Many of his current programs, which will be described in the
future, are quite similar to his past "interests." Is this the
Library of Congress, or Library of Covert Operations? [.]
On Billington as Scholar
James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and the CIA
Here's a column which shows that the patrician non-librarian of
Congress, Dr James H Billington, has created a regime at LC based on
his close connections to the CIA during the Cold War (and after its
'official ending'). There are many ramifications of this. But under
the present situation , in which we are, as librarians, being coerced
into being accomplices of police and espionage operations, it is good
to remember who is at the helm of the symbolic leader in the world of
US libraries.
The Library of Congress , our largest and greatest collection of
media of knowledge (and ignorance), our flagship library, is led by a
man who has no regard for the profession of librarians and archivists
or for their knowledge and expertise or, most pertinently here, for
their codes of ethics and principles. He is a partisan Cold War
dinosaur, closely attached to the CIA, which is one of the
organizations against which, under the USA PATRIOT Act we must now
guard our own freedom as citizens.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Librarian of Congress James Billington's most impressively massive
book, is seldom examined from the point of view of its scholarly
methodology and ideology, and to do so perhaps it is fortunate that
within the dispassionate, rigorous framework of the British school
of analytic philosophy and ethics, the renowned ethicist, Peter
Singer, felt like taking it on.
Singer's quiet but effective presentation and debunking of the
argument and methods of Billington's embarrassing extended conspiracy
theory of modern Western history, "Fire in the Minds of Men" a
extensively foot-noted tome which takes up a great deal of space on
the spare bookcases of the far-right, but alas is largely unread,
appeared in:
The New York Review of Books
November 6, 1980
Review
Revolution and Religion
By Peter Singer [of]
'Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith'
by James H. Billington
Basic Books, 677 pp
It is worth going to a back issue of the NYRB to read Singer's lucid
politely ironic take on this 'magnificent piece of scholarship.'
In point of fact, the greatest admirers of Billington's work are
extreme-right cranks. Here's one of many examples, found on the web,
of how they concur that he is their intellectual idol.
--------
On the other hand, here's a review by a self-admitted exponent of the
"conspiracy theory of history " (i.e, by scholarly standards, a
kook), who finds in the work of current Librarian of Congress, James
Billington, the apotheosis of right-wing conspiracy theories of
revolutionary movements, a pseudo-scholarly 'tour de force'
presentation of conspiracy writ large.
The following is from the website
<http://reformed-theology.org/ice/books/conspiracy/html/6.htm>
[.]
Quigley's scholarship was matched by James Billington's account of
revolutionary movements in the period 1789 through 1917. Billington's
Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith (Basic
Books, 1980) is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is one of those
exceedingly rare books which is simultaneously seminal and seemingly
definitive - not just a path-breaker, but a four-lane highway. It is
a standing testimony to the failure of all previous, certified,
Establishment scholars to take seriously the role of conspiracies in
European history. Furthermore, while Quigley almost never provided
footnotes (though there are a lot of them in Anglo-American
Establishment), Billington buries the reader in footnotes, in more
languages than any of us cares to learn, and from more obscure
booksand scholarly journals than any of us cares to know about. The
silence from the historical profession has been deafening. (The same
silence also greeted volumes two and three of Antony Sutton's
previously mentioned three-volume bombshell, Western Technology and
Soviet Economic Development.) What they cannot answer, professional
historians prefer to ignore.
Billington focuses on the revolutionary underground: secret
societies, pornographers, occultists, and revolutionary journalists,
who established the basic philosophy and organizational structure of
the twentieth century's bloody revolutionary groups. What he shows is
that the "rational" socialists and revolutionaries of the "left" were
from the beginning deeply mixed up in such things as occultism,
irrationalism, and pornography. He exposes the dark side of
"progressive" revolutionary forces.
He does not discuss events after 1917, nor does he provide much
material that would link today's Establishment manipulators (or their
spiritual forebears) to revolutionary movements. What he does do,
however, is to demonstrate that twentieth-century Marxism and
socialism were born in dubious circumstances. Without support from
the occult underground and what income and influence the founders
derived from service as popular journalists, there would have been no
"inevitable victory of the proletariat," no "vanguard of the
revolution."
Billington had previously been a Harvard and Princeton history
professor, and is a C.F.R. member. Today, he is the Librarian of
Congress. By all standards, he is one of the highest-level academic
"insiders." They still remember Quigley, whose book discussed the
Establishment groups that have financed such revolutionary groups,
and that have used and misused portions of this revolutionary
ideology to further their own ends. Billington did not write a
Quigley-type book, but it turned out to be a spectacular account of
the organizational roots of modern revolutionism.
What is still needed is a comprehensively researched fusion of these
two approaches which demonstrates the existence of a continuing
alliance of the revolutionary underground and the Establishment. With
footnotes. Or as Allen and Abraham wrote in None Dare [Call it
Treason], pressure from below combined with pressure from above, "a
dictatorship of the elite disguised as a dictatorship of the
proletariat."
This is not to say that Billington was unaware of this alliance. He
does not pursue the topic, but his book begins with the most
important of all these alliances historically, the alliance between
alienated segments of the French nobility (especially the King's
cousin, Philip of Orléans) and the perverts of the Parisian
underground. Philip gave them legal and geographical sanctuary and a
forum for their ideas in the gigantic garden spot in central Paris,
which he controlled, the Palais-Royal. As Billington remarks,
"Nowhere - the literal meaning of Utopia - first became someplace in
the Palais-Royal" (p. 25). He makes it clear that the Parisian mob
was the tool of this alliance, not an independent force in the coming
of the French Revolution. The French Revolution and the Russian
Revolution were not the product of impersonal forces of history. They
were the product of long years of conscious conspiratorial
organization and planning. This is not your standard textbook
account...."
And that is Billington's audience and typical of his devotees as 'scholar'.
He is often brought up in discussions of the 'kernels of truth' in the
'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', the most notorious and vicious
anti-semitic forgery still used today to evoke an international
Jewish conspiracy.
He should be asked to resign along with his hand-picked military
second-in-command. If ALA were the professional oprganization it
ought to be, it would be questioning its alliance with LC rather than
covering up its misleadership and misdeeds.
Mark Rosenzweig
Councilor at large
NYC
http://home.earthlink.net/~iskra/index.html
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