James Wall, Debbie Menon and Veterans Today's new anti-Semitic site-Update

On April 17th 2012, I wrote an article on the anti-Semitic site Veterans Today. My intention was to clearly define VT’s bent toward anti-Semitic bigotry.  Among other issues, I pointed to one of the more bizarre quotes by VT’s chairman Gordon Duff:

Federal Reserve” means “Rothschild.” “Rothschild” means poverty, hunger, ignorance and, most of all, war. This is all you really need to know. Everything else, the Pentagon, Wall Street, the corporate news, congress, the Supreme Court, the arms industry bandits are nothing but their henchmen, cowards and thieves that sold their souls for cash, the perception of power and vice.

The site has even published an article suggesting that Jewish Rabbis should be hung.[1]

In the posting, Veterans Today: Against the Jewish people, against Christians, and against veterans, I listed some sister sites, and individuals who both write for VT and uphold their deplorable ideology. James Wall, former editor of Christian Century, is an individual whose posts at his blog, Wallwritings, has often been published on VT. And Wall has publically approved Gordon Duff.

Another person I pointed to is Debbie Menon who blogs at My Catbird Seat and lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I was later to note that Menon seemed to have parted company with VT because she was no longer listed there and Gordon Duff was no longer listed on her site, although both sites were still using the same writers and articles.

I have now found that VT is maintaining another site linked to on their friendlier Veterans Today Network.  One can either click on a banner sometimes displayed at the top of VTN or click on a link at the bottom of the page, in tiny print, to go to Veterans News Now.Com.

Much of the material placed on Veterans News Now.Com is as anti-Semitic as the original material on the Veterans Today Site. What is different is that Wall, has now been welcomed as an associate editor and one of the writers. He has undoubtedly been an associate for about a year. Debbie Menon is now the Editor in Chief, one of the managing editors, and one of the writers. Many of the persons on the VNN editorial board are also involved with Veterans Today. Gordon Duff is seemingly not a part of the VNN—at least he is not mentioned as a member of the editorial board. But why is all of this important?

First of all, Wall as a past editor of Christian Century has developed some credibility, and now he not only uses material from VT, he is associated with the vile site. He helps make decisions about the articles posted to that site. Wall is a person whose writings are often used by a denominational organization, Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); on their twitter page they often link to his articles.

Secondly, since Menon, who lives in Dubai, is in charge of VNN’s editorial board one might wonder how she could possibly be helpful to citizens including veterans of the United States? In fact, her position with VT leaves open all kinds of questions. For instance how can someone who is supposed to be concerned about American Veterans allow such drivel as in an article such as “Earth’s alpha predator: Zionist Mafia” written by Rand Clifford? Here is one quote:

Before 9/11 birthed the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) to aim American blood and treasure at Israel’s enemies, 189 of Earth’s 196 recognized “sovereign” nations had a Rothschild-controlled central bank. Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Cuba, Iraq, and North Korea were those last seven nations resisting Rothschild enslavement.

Now, only Cuba, North Korea, and Iran remain free. Notice how high Iran and North Korea are on our list of enemies?

One might also ask, why would the former editor of Christian Century, James Wall, allow such material to be published? And why would any denominational organization link to Wall’s writings knowing his relationship to Veterans Today and Veterans News Now. Com?

Update, there is now more information at Snapshots a Camera blog & Stand Firm

[1] Someone asked about a link to the Rabbi's hung statement. I have not been able to find it but here is the source, J. Bruce Campbell, and one of his articles, "Resistance: No Warrant No Entry No Knock No Mercy" at http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/06/22/the-resistance/ A quote from the article, "to establish a defense against Jewish aggression, the underlying cause of America’s decline. Eliminate Jewish involvement in government, media, law, medicine and education and declare the rabbinical class a national enemy." There are many such statements by the same author at VT.

Veterans Today: Against the Jewish people, against Christians, and against veterans

In a time when so many veterans have so many needs a web journal that seemingly provides boundless information for them is a hoax without any morality. Veterans Today is subtitled “Military Veterans and Foreign affairs Journal.” It is also listed as a web network that “is a conglomerate of online U.S. Veteran web sites providing information, news, jobs, benefits, and advocacy for U.S. Military ...” And if you go to the Network site that will seem like a reasonable statement. But if you go to the journal site, Veterans Today, the words will be contrary to what most United States military men & women expect from a helpful service site.

On the web journal there is constant diatribe against both Israel and the Jewish people. You will also find diatribes against Christians. And if you are a veteran there are articles with dishonest historical accounts that will cause you to recoil.

Veterans Today and the Jews: In an article entitled “Zimmerman does NOT represent all Jews” there is a false suggestion that the man, George Zimmerman, who recently killed an unarmed African American, is Jewish. The article sarcastically has lines such as “We cannot repeat too often that Judaism is a religion of peace. Yes, there are a small number of Jewish extremists out there who support child-murdering terrorist organizations like the State of Israel; who shoot innocent black kids down in cold blood; who call for the murder of the President of the United States; and so on and so forth.”

The author, Dr. Kevin Barrett, continuing with his sarcasm writes, “But most Jews are law-abiding citizens, not terrorists – even though parts of their Talmud do exhibit a vastly greater reverence for Jewish life than for non-Jewish life.”

VT is an organization that simply hates Jews and uses hate speech in many of their articles. They believe that the State of Israel was behind the 9-11 tragedy, that the Jews control banks, government and Media. The Chair of their board and Senior Editor, Gordon Duff, uses the old conspiracy theory that the Rothschilds have for hundreds of years controlled the world financial systems and caused most wars. In an article written in 2010 he wrote:

Federal Reserve” means “Rothschild.” “Rothschild” means poverty, hunger, ignorance and, most of all, war. This is all you really need to know. Everything else, the Pentagon, Wall Street, the corporate news, congress, the Supreme Court, the arms industry bandits are nothing but their henchmen, cowards and thieves that sold their souls for cash, the perception of power and vice.

Veterans Today and Christianity: It is clear that VT vehemently despises traditional Christianity. In an article on Coptic Christians in Egypt, Dr. Ashraf Ezzat uses the horrible persecution of Coptic Christians as well as the death of the Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, to point to alleged past evil deeds of the Christians of Egypt. Writing of the early history of the Copts in Egypt Ezzat states:

And if the valley of the Nile was blessed by the gods, one wonders what use did Christianity possibly have for the religious Egyptians? What were the chances of Christ to compete with the mighty Amun-ra or Osiris? How was a multi-faith environment to reconcile with a foreign religion whose followers exclusively believed in one humiliated god? … Well, This proved to be both the challenge and the tragedy for Ptolemaic Alexandria, the cosmopolitan city that combined the wisdom of Thoth and the capriciousness of Dionysus.

Ezzat them blames the Copts for the death of the philosopher Hypatia and the burning of the library of Alexandria.

In an article by Eileen Fleming, “The Jefferson Bible: A rational Christianity and Earth Day 2012,”, the author glories in the idea of a Bible devoid of all its miracles.[1] And one should note that this includes a Bible which has totally lost the Old Testament and this leads to some understanding of how it is that VT hates traditional Christianity.

For many of the writers at Veterans Today Christianity’s connection to the Old Testament and Judaism is, not unlike earlier Nazis, anathema. Bob Johnson in his article, “Hanukkah: A celebration of Superstition over Wisdom,” attributes the holiday to the desire of the Jewish leaders to control their people. (It is truly celebrated because God supplied oil for the lamp in the Temple.) Johnson writes:

At the time, around 200 BCE, many individual Jews were being attracted away from the fear based superstitions and ignorance of Judaism over to Hellenism which is based on nature, reason and progress.

Johnson later writes:

The irreconcilable difference between “revealed” religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and science and real natural progress is that the “revealed” religions believe wisdom comes from fear of God as Proverbs 9:10 falsely claims. The Hellenistic idea is that wisdom comes from wonder, as Socrates said.

And then, in a manipulative way, Johnson uses the Jewish scholar Leo Strauss. He asks this question:

Strauss asks us a very important question – is our allegiance with Jerusalem and religious ignorance and violence promoting superstitions or is it with Athens and free thought and free inquiry along with the science and progress they produce?

Veterans Today and veterans: With the admittance that a small number of United States service people have committed terrible crimes in war, an article, Scoundrel Media Afghan Massacre Cover-up,” that starts like this, “Viciousness defines US wars. No crime’s too great to commit. Human lives are valueless. Only winning matters, then on to the next war. Lies, deception, unspeakable brutality, and cover-up define them,” is a clue about how Veterans Today really feels about veterans.

Another article, “Let your Life be a Friction to stop the Machine” posted by Debbie Menon is supposedly the history of the United States starting with the American Revolution.

It is portrayed as continuous evil controlled by a small elite concerned only with wealth & power. It is the usual kind of propaganda—take all of the evils, true or imagined, never mention goodness or victory, thereby creating a national history that is a monster. The author who is anonymous encourages total rebellion. Veterans should understand that many of the articles on VT leave the impression that US veterans of all eras in all wars were conned into fighting for a corrupt small group of elites.

Sister sites of Veterans Today. Some of the writers for VT, and there are many, have their own particular web sites and/or radio shows. But more importantly VT has sister sites with the same authors and the same articles. Here is a list of some of the more important ones:

My Catbird Seat- Administrator and Editor is Debbie Menon who also writes for VT –she lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. [*]

http://www.salem-news.com/ Tim and Bonnie King of Salem Oregon are the main staff and Tim King is also an editor for VT. Eileen Fleming writes for this site.

Intifada Palestine- Elias F. Harb is a Palestinian based in Mexico.

While all of the VT writers write for other sites these four sites, VT and the other three sites, consistently use most of the same writers.

There are also writers with their own web sites who also write for these sites. They include:

Alan Hart who writes at http://www.alanhart.net/

James Wall who writes at Wallwritings

Stephen lendman hosts The Progressive Radio News Hour on The Progressive Radio Network and blogs at Steve Lendman Blog

Veterans Today is a fraud scamming too many people. Although many of its producers and writers are progressive on social and political issues they are so tied to conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and hate speech they walk in step with the extreme far right. Their sites, articles, writers and future plans should be avoided by those who hold to decent and righteous principles.

[1] See also "Eileen Fleming & IPMN: forgetting the redemptive work of Jesus. " Fleming has responded in a comment on this post.
[*] Today is Sept. 13, 2012--I have noticed that there is no longer a link between VT and My Catbird Seat. Menon has removed any references to VT from her site and Duff any references to the Catbird site. I will leave the link there until I know the division is permanent.

Please share my anger: IPMN, James Wall & hanging Jewish people

Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, writes of Bonhoeffer’s “holy anger” over the suffering of the Jews in Germany on Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass). That was the night when most of the synagogues and Jewish businesses in Germany were destroyed and burned. I hope the anger I am feeling at the moment has at least a tiny amount of holiness.

How do you feel when you read the statement below?

This is the way the world is, and this is Israel, the remorseless, unprincipled barbaric in the most and truest sense, of nations. I think the ruthless barbaric sense of superiority and invincibility Israel is, is in the myth of their “Nation” if not their blood, for there is no such thing as an ethnic or blood Jew or “people.” These God’s chosen people? My God!

I tire of this charade, and it is time someone began calling these shenanigans, what it is, spades are spades, and naming Zionist Israelis for what they are and, not simply calling them to account, but going to their house, knocking on their door, dragging them out, holding their feet to the fire and calling them to account… at the end of a figurative rope if necessary, and virtual ropes if at all possible!

The quote is by Debbie Menon, writing on a site that is a blog connected to Veterans Today, the horribly anti-Semitic site I wrote about several days ago. The site, My Catbird Seat, has many of the same writers that Veterans Today has including VT’s Senior Editor, Gordon Duff, who pushes the theory that Israel conspired to down the twin Towers on 9-11. My Catbird Seat has a list of their contributing writers. At the bottom of the list the name James M Wall is listed.

James Wall, once the Editor and Publisher of The Christian Century and now a contributing editor, is a writer often used by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) In fact; they have several of his articles on their web page. And on their Facebook page they just recently linked to one of his article from his blog Wall Writings, “US Offers Bibi 20 F-35 Fighters, The Jordan Valley and a Free UN Pass.”

Pastor David Fischler at Reformed Pastor has just written about Wall’s article, James Wall: Sewer Dweller (UPDATED). Fischler points out that Wall in his article was using resources from Veterans Today. He also raises some great questions and suggests that The Christian Century, for the sake of their own integrity, needs to rid themselves of any connection with Wall. “He [James Wall] has inextricably linked and identified himself with them through the sites he writes for and uses as sources. He is a blot on the Christian Century, and on the mainline churches that have looked to him for journalistic wisdom.”

I believe the same question needs to be asked of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network as well as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Rarely does the IPMN miss linking to Wall’s articles if they are about the Middle East. If they realize that he is connected to such extreme groups will they disconnect from him? Will the PCUSA ever understand that they have an organization, the IPMN, with too many connections by linkage, to radical anti-Semitic groups?

The truth is, after looking at many of the posts on My Catbird Seat, I realize that their articles and links are not that much different then the ones posted at IPMN. Only those that have to do with 9-11 conspiracy theories and rabid ant-Semitism are missing form the IPMN site. Other wise the articles and authors are mostly the same. And the continuous rant about Israel and Jewish people and organizations in the United States are also the same.

I am angry. It is almost Thanksgiving, I have a review to write, pies to bake, great grandchildren to read to, but still I am angry. I will go to the mountains for dinner with my oldest son and his wife, and I will go angry. I will carry this anger with me not from hate but from love. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has called us to peace and truth. He is truth; how can we hold such dishonesty in our hearts. How can we use information and organizations that tell lies about those God chose to bless the world with his great grace, Jesus Christ? How can we in any way be connected to those who wish to use “virtual ropes” on the Jewish people? Please share my anger.