米国でヘイトクライムが目立つらしい。
初めてのアフリカ系大統領が誕生したことや、経済危機が影響して
いるとの指摘も聞かれる。
・ホロコースト博物館で黒人警備員男性を射殺
・コネティカット州の大学：女子学生がユダヤ人であることを理由に射殺
・ニューヨーク市のユダヤ教施設の爆破未遂事件
昔から「ユダヤ人支配だ」と主張してきた金融界が今の不況の発端
「『誰かのせい』にしたくなる土壌ができつつある」とのこと。
陰謀説はいつも絶えることはない。
差別を行なう側から、差別を受ける側に変わり、その不満が違った側に
向く。人間は、生まれながらに、欲望(差別、暴力等)を持ち、法による
統治から、個人が理性によって欲望を制御すると言う思想もあるが、
社会からはみ出したもの同士が、ネットで意気投合し、共闘する状況が
現実のようだ。
米国土安全保障省は「極右思想を持った一匹おおかみや、小さな秘密結社
による国内テロは、我が国にとって最も危険な脅威だ」と報告。
一部のマスメディアによると、
「思想を矯正すれば良いと言う理念は間違いで、ネットの一人の書込みが
憎悪を増大させるケースのほうが多い」と言う。
兵器が簡単に手に入る環境で、気に入らないから銃で人を殺す米国と
わざわざ特殊ナイフを購入し、死刑のために殺人をする日本。
何か違いがあるのだろうか。
「バカとはさみは使いよう」とよく言われるが、ネット創設期は、
「尋ね人」「献血」等善良(?)に使われたが、一般化され、利便性が
よくなるにつれて、犯罪の温床となり、犯罪を誘発し、現在は扇動する
状況になった。
ネット利用者を記名にすることで、犯罪を低減しようとしたが、韓国を
見ても効果は、目に見ていないようだ。
地域、世代で格差が生まれ、十代ではライフラインに近い。
Stand Alone ComplexやIndividual Elevenは、日米のネット利用状況を
想定したのかな。
Child Porn Found on Von Brunn's Computer The Associated Press
First Person: Fellow Holocaust Guard Speaks Out The Associated Press
Obama effect in Washington DC Holocaust Museum shooting?
---米国：人種差別、上院が謝罪…黒人奴隷解放から１４４年---
毎日新聞 2009年6月21日 9時53分
http://mainichi.jp/select/world/america/news/20090621k0000e030005000c.html
【ワシントン及川正也】米上院は１８日、奴隷制度（１８６５年廃止）と人種差別の象徴となったジム・クロウ法（１９６４年廃止）で苦痛を味わったアフリカ系米国人（黒人）に対し、公式に謝罪する決議を全会一致で採択した。下院では昨年、同様の決議を採択しているが、黒人初のオバマ大統領が誕生したことを受け、上院でも採択した形だ。
決議では「奴隷制度や人種差別の根本的な不法、残虐さ、残忍さや残酷さ」を認め、「米国民を代表してアフリカ系米国人に謝罪する」としている。昨年の下院決議も同様の内容で、下院は近く改めて決議を採択する。
米国では１８６５年の南北戦争終結後の黒人解放にちなみ、６月１９日は「奴隷解放の日」と呼ばれ、上院決議はその前日に採択された。ただ、拘束力はなく、連邦政府の法的補償なども避けている。
---米で人種・民族憎悪犯罪目立つ オバマ政権や不況影響か---
2009年6月21日1時1分
http://www.asahi.com/international/update/0620/TKY200906200158.html
【ニューヨーク＝田中光】米国で、人種や出身地、民族などを理由に少数派を標的にする「ヘイトクライム」（憎悪犯罪）が今年に入って目立ちつつある。初めてのアフリカ系（黒人）大統領が誕生したことや、経済危機が影響しているとの指摘も聞かれる。
「オバマは、ユダヤ人によってつくられた。オバマはユダヤ人の言われた通りに動いているだけだ」。米メディアによると、今月１０日、首都ワシントンのホロコースト（ユダヤ人大虐殺）博物館で警備の黒人男性を射殺したとして逮捕された男（８８）は、こんなメモを車に残していた。
男は「米国がユダヤ人に支配されている」と妄信し、ホロコーストも実際は起きていないと主張するなど、典型的な白人至上主義者で、憎悪犯罪での逮捕歴もあった。
このほかにも最近は、コネティカット州の大学で、女子学生がユダヤ人であることを理由に射殺されたり、ニューヨーク市でユダヤ教施設の爆破未遂事件があったりした。
米連邦捜査局（ＦＢＩ）によると、０７年の憎悪犯罪総数７６２４件のうち、「対黒人」が２６５８件、「対ユダヤ人」は９６９件だった。
アラバマ州に拠点を置く人権団体によると、極右グループは０８年現在で、９２６団体にのぼり、最近は増加傾向にあるという。「非白人移民の増加が主な理由」というが、「黒人大統領の登場も影響している」と分析する。
極右勢力が昔から「ユダヤ人支配だ」と主張してきた金融界が今の不況の発端となったことが、こうした勢力の動きを活発化させているとの指摘もある。ノートルダム大のマクベイ教授は、大恐慌時代も排斥主義者が増えたといい、「極右思想でもなんでもない人が『誰かのせい』にしたくなる土壌ができつつある」と分析する。
水面下の勢力も懸念される。米国土安全保障省はこの春、「極右思想を持った一匹おおかみや、小さな秘密結社による国内テロは、我が国にとって最も危険な脅威だ」とする報告書をまとめた。
ホロコースト博物館での事件も単独犯とみられている。ピッツバーグ大のブリー教授は「昔の極右は組織に属していたが、今は違う。思想でつながるだけで、明確な指示系統はない」と指摘する。
---Hungarian far-right activist facing terror charges---
June 21, 2009
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/21/1006022/hungarian-far-right-activist-faces-terror-charges
BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Hungary arrested a far-right activist and leader of the country's neo-Nazi movement on terrorism charges.
Gyorgy Budahazy, who was charged on several counts of arson and instigation to murder, has declined to cooperate with the investigation and threatened to counter-sue the attorney general.
Hungarian investigators believe they have established a link between Budahazy and the terrorist organization Hungarian Arrows, which has claimed responsibility for several recent arson attacks. The name of the organization is a reference to the Hungarian Arrow-Cross, a Nazi military organization that murdered tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
Budahazy was present last week at the signing of collaboration accords between Jobbik, a Hungarian neo-Nazi party, and several radical rightist youth organizations.
Budahazy is believed to have established a terror unit in 2007 to spread fear among leftist politicians. Shots fired at the home of Istvan Hiller, the Socialist education minister, and an arson attack on the property of Janos Koka, a Liberal politician and the minister of commerce at the time, allegedly were intended to influence parliamentary debate on health-care reforms and the national budget.
Hungarian Arrows is blamed for these as well as three similar attacks and other incidents.
Budahazy's arrest is the fifth linked to a police raid on a house in April that uncovered an arsenal of weapons and a bomb-making factory, including several devices thought to have been intended for use on the homes of politicians.
---Grieving for 'Another Victim of an Evil . . . Mentality'---
Holocaust Museum Guard Is Honored
By Keith L. Alexander and Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 20, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/06/19/ST2009061901106.html
The slaying of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum guard Stephen T. Johns was the latest sign that discrimination and racism remain as potent as ever, ministers at the security officer's funeral said yesterday.
About 2,000 mourners filled the pews of Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington to pay tribute to Johns, who was fatally wounded June 10. The guard had opened a museum door for white supremacist James W. von Brunn, 88, who then walked in with a rifle and shot him, authorities allege.
The Rev. John L. McCoy, senior pastor of Word of God Baptist Church in the District and the family's minister, said the museum had one more victim of hatred.
"The hope of the Holocaust museum was that the world would never again allow such crimes against humanity. Yet Officer Johns is another victim of an evil, criminal, pygmy and insane mentality," McCoy said. "Officer Johns now belongs to the six million-plus who perished in the Holocaust."
Several ministers urged the mourners to use Johns's death as a reminder to voice their objections when they encounter racism, whether at work or with friends. With many African Americans and Jews at the service, the Rev. Grainger Browning Jr., pastor at Ebenezer, said that "the same hate that created slavery was the same hate that caused the Holocaust."
Johns's bronze coffin arrived at the church about 8:15 a.m. in a white hearse and was carried in by an honor guard of officers. Two security guards were posted on either side of the open coffin as mourners approached. Several officers, including colleagues from the Wackenhut security firm, saluted it as they passed. Large Redskins floral arrangements surrounded it, a homage to the native Washingtonian and Redskins fan. When the coffin was closed, people stood in respect.
Johns was dressed in a cream linen suit. A toy butterfly lay on the pillow next to him.
His family filled 18 pews, and the sobs of his wife, Zakiah, wafted through the church. The two had celebrated their one-year anniversary last month. John's 11-year-old son, Stephen Jr., rested his head on his mother's shoulder.
Among the mourners were Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and former defense secretary William S. Cohen and his wife, Janet, who were at the museum the day of the shooting. Police officers and dignitaries from local and federal law enforcement agencies filled the church.
Separately, Prince George's County police had been on alert after Ebenezer received several protest threats from anti-Semitic groups. The protests, however, never occurred.
The funeral program included copies of a handwritten letter from 9 1/2 -year-old Riley Grisar of Las Vegas. Riley was at the museum June 10, and Johns was the first person he met when he entered. Riley said Johns had joked with him about having to confiscate the coins in his pocket. Riley saluted Johns's "bravery" and said Johns "saved many lives, including mine."
Evelyn Gambell, 67, did not know Johns but left her Bladensburg home at 5:30 a.m. to come to the church and pay her respects. "This touched my heart. I had to come," Gambell said. "We live in a cruel world, but I believe he's resting in the arms of the Lord."
Nesse Godin, 81, one of several Holocaust survivors at the service, said Johns and the other officers would greet her and other volunteers with a kiss on the cheek and a hug each morning when they arrived.
"He was a wonderful man," she said.
The museum was closed until 3 p.m. yesterday to allow busloads of employees and volunteers to attend the funeral. Museum officials said they were reviewing what kind of memorial to create in Johns's honor at the museum.
Rabbi Tamara Miller, director of spiritual care at George Washington University, was in the emergency room when Johns was brought in. "I felt compelled to come here today not just as a rabbi, but as a Jewish person who gave comfort and care that was a light on what was a very dark day."
After the funeral, members of Johns's family gathered outside the front doors of Ebenezer and were presented with a folded American flag by an honor guard. As he left the church, Stephen Johns Jr. held the flag to his chest.
---Some suspect conspiracy in Holocaust Museum case---
June 16, 2009 -- Updated 2334 GMT (0734 HKT)
By Mike M. Ahlers CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/16/museum.shooting/
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To most, the evidence against alleged Holocaust Museum shooter James von Brunn may seem overwhelming.
Surveillance camera video.
Eyewitness accounts.
Von Brunn's red Hyundai parked outside.
Ballistics.
But to some people in Von Brunn's e-mail chain and Web circles, there's a darker truth.
They say the June 10 shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum may be a "false flag" operation. The incident could have been staged by one group, perhaps what they describe as the Jewish-controlled U.S. government, to make it appear to be the actions of another group -- in this case, von Brunn and others who believe Jews exercise too much control in the United States.
In other words, von Brunn could have been set up, they contend.
Where others see meaningless coincidence, members of "Ghost Troop," an online group of writers and investigators bent on disproving official versions of the September 11, 2001, attacks and other major events, have a penchant for seeing what they argue is meaningful evidence. Where others see the smoke of understandable and inevitable inconsistency, they see fire.
Ghost Troop members are trying to build the case that von Brunn, an ardent believer in conspiracy theories, was himself the victim of a conspiracy.
Ghost Troop's center of focus until now has been the 2001 terrorist attacks. The museum shooting has opened yet another window into the thinking of a group that believes many highly public and publicized events are rarely what they appear to be.
"It's possible that he [von Brunn] might have been enticed to the Holocaust Museum," said Ghost Troop member William Fox. Fox said that Israeli intelligence agents could have shot security officer Stephen Johns, then shot von Brunn, then planted the rifle.
"Today's shootings at the DC Holocaust Museum bear some of the classic earmarks of a false flag operation," wrote conspiracy theorist Eric May on the Web site amfirstbooks.com.
"Mind you, I'm not asserting that this is a false flag operation, but neither am I discounting the possibility. I exhort Internet researchers to look into this carefully and publish results," May wrote.
An Embassy of Israel official in Washington, informed of the Ghost Troop speculation, declined comment, saying it deserved none.
May is founder of Ghost Troop, which he describes as an informal group of more then 300 ex-military and civilian volunteers who "thwart false flag attacks and other criminal activity by the administration."
May wrote that the 9/11 attacks were "in all likelihood an 'inside job,' a collaborative effort between high-level U.S. government insiders and the Israeli Mossad."
He wrote he also thinks the same about the Madrid, Spain, train bombing in 2004 and the London, England, bombings in 2005.
"These false flag attacks are used to justify further U.S. and Israeli military interventionism and other geopolitical goals," May wrote.
Ghost Troop bloggers also have speculated about the timing of the appearance of "666" in the Illinois State Lottery, saying the number could be a signal to others for nefarious purposes.
In an interview Friday, May said that von Brunn corresponded with him from 2006 to 2009, and distributed May's writings to others. But von Brunn was not a Ghost Troop member, May said.
"I came to regard him as one of my readers and critics," May said. "I believe he was an eccentric and brilliant man. I thought he was bigoted. We shared many views, but his view [on race] is not one of them."
May said he was initially surprised by von Brunn's alleged involvement in the museum shooting, saying that von Brunn "never threatened direct action, although he sometimes commented or made allusions to how there needs to be an uprising."
Now, May said, his "theory, but not conviction [is] that this was a staged event, a contrived shooting."
The reasons he feels that way: The government has not released videotape, a former high-ranking government official was at the shooting scene, a North American Aerospace Defense Command exercise was planned for the day of the incident and there were discrepancies between the number of shots some witnesses recalled hearing and the number of bullet casings found at the shooting scene.
(Unless witnesses are being sought, governments rarely release videotapes before a trial. Former Defense Secretary William Cohen was near the entrance to the museum, where he was to see a performance of his wife's play later that day. Witness descriptions of shootings frequently differ from evidence. NORAD exercises are held every few months in Washington.)
Finally, May said, the Holocaust Museum shooting "didn't seem like the kind of operation he would have done if he had decided to go on what in effect was a homicide/suicide mission."
Fox, like May, said he is not certain the Holocaust Museum attack is a "false flag" operation. But, he added, "This is so incredibly convenient for [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano and the Jewish lobby to have this happen right now." He said Napolitano's job was in danger because she implied that returning veterans were susceptible to influence from terrorists.
"It's not all black and white. I believe along with the captain [May] that most of the official story is true." But "malevolent forces are trying to spin this to the max. They love to take incidents like this to amplify them to the max," he said.
Fox said he was suspicious that the museum shooting could be a false flag operation because a person with von Brunn's military experience should have been able to stage a more forceful assault on the building. He is also suspicious because the government has not released surveillance video of the incident.
"Where are the videos? Have you seen any video evidence yet? That's interesting, don't you think?" he said.
U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman John Roth said prosecutors "have very strict guidelines with regards to what we can and cannot produce in a pretrial setting." The guidelines are designed to prevent prejudicing potential jurors, he said.
"It's for the protection of the defendant more than anything else," Roth said.
"In the normal course, these things are introduced at trial and made publicly available," he said.
Asked if he was participating in a coverup, Roth said, "No."
---FBI Seeks to Target Lone Extremists---
JUNE 15, 2009
By GARY FIELDS and EVAN PEREZ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124501849215613523.html
The recent killings of a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum guard and a Kansas abortion doctor came a few months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped up efforts to pre-empt violence committed by just such political extremists working alone.
"Lone-wolf offenders continue to be of great concern to law enforcement," the agency said in a February memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The FBI is "trying to identify a potential lone wolf before he or she would act out violently," Michael Ward, the bureau's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said in an interview earlier this year.
The lone-wolf initiative is one element of a broader strategy to fight domestic terrorism, dubbed "Operation Vigilant Eagle," launched late last year in response to what the memo identified as "an increase in recruitment, threatening communications, and weapons procurement by white supremacy extremist and militia/sovereign citizen extremist groups."
Vigilant Eagle's creation was first reported by the Journal in April.
The memo, and the recent killings, also show the limits of the lone-wolf effort. Both James von Brunn, who is charged with the Holocaust Museum shooting, and Scott Roeder, the man arrested in the murder of George Tiller in Kansas, had openly expressed to associates and on Web sites their extremist views, on anti-Semitism in Mr. von Brunn's case and on abortion in the case of Mr. Roeder. The FBI, in fact, was aware of Mr. von Brunn because of the postings but wasn't tracking him.
Neither man appears to have been active in groups that might have tipped off authorities to the danger. In the search for potentially violent individual extremists, "an emphasis should be placed on the identification of individuals who have been ostracized from a group for their radical beliefs," the FBI memo said. It added that officials should look for "those who have voluntarily left a group due to their perception of the group's inactivity, or those forced from the group for being too extreme and or violent." That description doesn't appear to have fit either Mr. von Brunn or Mr. Roeder.
"The lone wolf is arguably one of the biggest challenges to American law enforcement," said Mike Rolince a former FBI counterterrorism official who spent years focused on domestic extremists. "How do you get into the mind of a terrorist? The FBI does not have the capability to know when a person gets up in middle America and decides: 'I'm taking my protest poster to Washington or I'm taking my gun.' "
While much of the focus in recent years has been on international terrorism and on militant groups, authorities say the lone-wolf syndrome has always been a major concern, borne out by high-profile incidents such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta and the series of bombings carried out over nearly two decades by Theodore Kaczynski, who lived in a remote cabin in Montana.
The stepped-up attention to the issue in recent months is part of a broader worry about rising threats and violence from political extremists. There are no concrete data showing recent trends. The FBI's hate-crime reports are more than a year behind. Still, the most recent data showed that from 2005 to 2007, the number of such incidents rose more than 6%.
In addition to the recent killings in Washington, D.C., and Kansas, recent lone-wolf cases include the killing of a soldier in Little Rock, Ark., last month, allegedly by a converted Muslim extremist, Abdulhakim Muhammad. Last August, a Florida man attending bail-bondsman training was arrested for making threats against then-Sen. Barack Obama and President George W. Bush. And in October, two men who identified themselves as skinheads were arrested in Tennessee where they were plotting to go on a nationwide killing spree targeting African-Americans.
The FBI memo also noted the scant academic study to date of violent individual extremists, and said the agency had recently stepped up efforts to analyze their actions. A study launched in partnership with Harvard University, the memo said, would seek to define characteristics and behavior that signal a potential lone-wolf offender.
Harvard spokesman who contacted various departments to ask about the study said he was unaware of it. The FBI said there was no date for completion.
The FBI memo also called on bureau offices around the country to assess whether the leaders of known extremist groups might be open to cooperating with law enforcement in identifying potential lone offenders. The FBU advised its offices not to initiate contact at this time.
Meantime, the bureau has been working with the U.S. military and with prison authorities to identify people who may raise concerns, hoping that "anyone who would be inclined to act out, we'd have a sporting chance to take any kind of preventative measures we can," Mr. Ward said.
One constraint facing authorities is the need to balance monitoring of potential violent extremists with the protection of a suspect's civil liberties. The memo noted that the study had been cleared by the FBI's "institutional review board, which reviews all FBI research involving human subjects in order to help protect the rights and welfare of those subjects."
"Their hands are tied a little bit," said Heidi Beirich, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. "We have to protect freedom of speech. It's kind of complicated."
---Holocaust museum slaying exposes the hate within---
Posted at 12:22 AM/ET, June 12, 2009 in USA TODAY editorial
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/holocaust-museum-slaying-exposes-the-hate-within.html
When the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was being conceived and built in the 1980s and 1990s, some critics questioned the need for such a facility in this country. After all, there was no Holocaust here.
There are many reasons why that skepticism was misplaced. The museum in Washington, D.C., was built so that new generations would learn of the horrors of Nazi Germany, so that older ones would never forget them and so that anti-Semites could not deny them. And it was built to honor the many victims of the Holocaust and to research its causes.
Another answer was provided Wednesday when a deranged, 88-year-old anti-Semitic gunman opened fire at the museum, killing a security guard before being critically wounded himself, police said.
A burst of rage from a geriatric assassin hardly matches Adolf Hitler's systematic slaughter of 11 million people, most of them Jews. But it is a reminder of how pervasive hate remains in dark corners of America, where the elections of the first African-American president and the first black Republican Party chairman feed anger and paranoia on white supremacy websites.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights law firm, identified 926 hate groups in the USA in its most recent study this spring.The numbers have been steadily edging up since 2000, when it counted 602. The rise is driven, the group says, by the intense reaction in some quarters to an influx of illegal immigrants.
The hate groups include neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan organizations and several other categories. By the center's estimate, roughly 100,000 people participate on a single Internet forum for white supremacists called Stormfront.org.
This is, of course, a tiny fraction of the people involved in such groups when bigotry was openly tolerated and segregation was imposed in Southern states by force of law.
Even so, the shooting shows how bigotry continues to fester in the shadows, only to emerge in a sudden act of violence. And it is reason to be wary - more so now that the Internet gives formerly isolated racists, whether individuals or small groups, a means to stoke one another's smoldering anger. With the ready availability of weapons, even a single person can do enormous harm.
There is something terribly self-reinforcing about someone killing at a place designed to honor those who have died. It is almost as if the accused killer, a convicted criminal named James von Brunn, who has spent decades writing and publishing racist and anti-Semitic material and whose hatred burned late in life, wanted to make a point that people like him need to commit violence to get noticed.
---Holocaust Museum Shooting: Overcoming Violence and Anti-Semitism---
Walter Reich
Former Holocaust Museum Director; Current Professor of International Affairs, Ethics and Human Behavior at George Washington University
Thursday, June 11, 2009; 11:30 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/06/10/DI2009061003251.html
Dr. Walter Reich, a former director of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, took your questions about about violence and hate crimes, the cultural impact of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism and more.
Reich, a psychiatrist by training, was the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from 1995-1998, and is currently the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Professor of International Affairs, Ethics and Human Behavior at The George Washington University and a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
____________________
Palo Alto, Calif.: Would you agree there has seemingly been an increase of high profile hate killings recently? In Kansas an abortion provider, here in Washington at the USHMM, and elsewhere, with key groups under attack...what do you make of this? Follow up question, how do we ensure that the hatemongers are limited in their ability to acquire a platform from which the media re-introduce stereotypes into social consciousness?
Walter Reich: The killing of the abortion provider in Kansas achieved a particularly high profile because of the high and broadly-held feelings regarding abortion. That killing, and the killing yesterday at the Holocaust Museum, don't, I believe, represent a general increase in hate-crimes.
Regarding limiting the ability of persons who carry out these acts to attract an audience: We can't, and certainly shouldn't, limit press-coverage of such acts. I believe that, in 1981, the man who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum yesterday tried to commit another violent act in order, he said, to be able to have an opportunity to make a public statement of his views.
_______________________
Rockville, Md.: Some loony geriatric acts out with a gun and it becomes a "broad social concern!" Sure there's anti-Semitism here in the land of the free. But the root cause is the same as it was in Germany and France and everywhere else, disenfranchisement of the poor, which has nothing to do with Jews and everything to do with an economic system that prioritizes profits over people!
Walter Reich: Economic issues, as well as many others, contribute in various ways to hate crimes, including anti-Semitic crimes. But economic issues aren't the single "root cause" of such crimes. And with regard to anti-Semitism, many other beliefs contribute to such actions.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: We all are saddened by the events. As a D.C.-area resident and one that frequents government office buildings I think there is an inherent flaw in the approach to security.
I noticed this as I approach Congressional office buildings. Security is set back in the buildings at and beyond the metal detector. I understand the logic to catch hidden weapons. A casual criminal is deterred by this system. However, others knowing of the security become criminals with blatant intent. They aren't going through metal detectors and are approaching the 1st layer as confrontation. In turn the security folks become sitting ducks.
Recall the Capitol shooting a few years back. The guy made it into the capitol and shoot an officer. More needs to be done outside and approaching the buildings.
Walter Reich: It's always important to find ways to improve security. Every suggestion, such as yours, is valuable, and should be offered to an agency or a building.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: Is it possible to read the shooter's screeds without going to the Web site he had? I'm often curious about just what motivates people like this to be so hateful, but I feel uneasy about giving their sites traffic. I don't want to be assumed to support such opinions, or to increase site traffic and thereby encourage people of a similar mindset.
washingtonpost.com: We have some quotes from there here -- A Suspect's Long History of Hate, and Signs of Strain -- but not extended excerpts.
Walter Reich: I think it's important that people acquaint themselves with the beliefs of people who carry out acts such as this, or who threaten such acts. And these days, most of those beliefs are on websites of various kinds; they're set up either by the persons who have those beliefs or by organizations that are dedicated to monitoring them. If you're concerned about not wanting to increase the website traffic of these organizations, you can visit the websites that monitor hate groups.
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Great Falls, Va.: Doesn't the museum have a security checkpoint? Or did this man start shooting before he got to the checkpoint?
Walter Reich: Information about the circumstances of the shooting are in the news story in the Washington Post.
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Gainesville, Va.: I beg of the Post and other media outlets to spend more time focusing on the victim Stephen Johns and his family than on the idiot who committed this crime. He paid the ultimate price to protect visitors to the museum.
washingtonpost.com: Johns profile: Grief, Shock After 'Outstanding' Guard Loses His Life in the Line of Duty
Walter Reich: Stephen Johns paid the ultimate price. The Post has done good reporting on Mr. Johns, and I hope it does more. I also hope it and other news organizations help the public understand more about the world out of which the shooter comes.
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Frederick, Md.: At 88-years-old he was old enough to serve in WWII. Did he? If so where (Europe or Asia)? How did he live through that era and still deny the Holocaust?
Walter Reich: Holocaust denial is generally espoused by people who have an anti-Semitic agenda. Sometimes this agenda overlaps, in whole or in part, with an anti-Zionist agenda. The most famous and influential Holocaust denier in the world today is the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Facts are irrelevant, or are brushed away, when it comes to Holocaust denial.
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Capitol Hill: I grew up in California and I honestly never knew antisemitism existed. Then I went to college in Texas and heard the stereotypes of Jewish people for the first time.
I was stunned that people my age truly believed these false generalizations -- things like "Jews control the media" that are just obviously, patently untrue.
So much of racism relies on stereotype. I never heard the stereotypes, so I had no reason to prejudge Jews.
If you could design a curriculum with the goal of eliminating antisemitism (if not all racism), what would it entail? Would you expose the stereotypes as false? Or does that simply extend the lies to a new generation?
Walter Reich: Anti-Semitism is sometimes called "the longest hatred," and I'm afraid that that's true. It has been in existence, often very violently so, for about two thousand years. Many factors have contributed to its persistence, including religious factors. It would be very hard to expunge it, but it would be profoundly wrong not to try--just as it would be profoundly wrong not to try expunging, or at least diminishing, all kinds of racism.
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Ryde, U.K.: This is slightly off-topic but relevant to the politics of hate. Here in the U.K. a collapse in voter trust gave a chance to a far-right political party in recent elections, and they secured two seats. Dr. Reich, do you think that the recent democratic renewal in the U.S., evident in the high participation in this year's presidential election, may, in time, serve to strengthen American society against the influence of racism?
Walter Reich: Strengthening democracy helps in the struggle against racism. It certainly doesn't eliminate it--but it helps.
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Richmond, Va.: Do you favor the Government putting gag restrictions on shows like Rush Limbaugh that may be inflaming these sort of acts?
Walter Reich: I'm not in favor of the government limiting free speech unless such speech could have an immediate consequence of causing death or harm--such as yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.
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Memorial Fund: Do you know if there be a memorial fund establish for Mr. Johns's son?
Walter Reich: I'm afraid I don't know if there is such a memorial fund.
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In response to Rockville, MD: Anti-Semitism has a long history, going back hundreds (maybe even a thousand?) years in Europe, long before Hitler. It has its roots in religious beliefs that Jews were responsible for the death of Christ (this belief was finally officially denounced by the Catholic Church with Vatican II). Over time it has grown and fed into a whole host of lies concocted by anti-Semites and the like to blame Jews for every possible problem that ever existed. Disenfranchisement of the poor is not by any means a non-factor, but hardly the only factor in this sad tale.
Walter Reich: Alas, anti-Semitism is even older than a thousand years. t's probably twice as old. And yes, many stereotypes have been added to the Christ-killer allegation, such as the belief that the Jews control finance, the media and governments, and such as the belief that the Jews are plotting to control the world. One of the most persistent modern anti-Semitic tracts is the forgery known as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which makes these allegations and continues to be published and read, especially, these days, in the Arab/Muslim world. I understnad that the website of the shooter in the Holocaust Museum included the "Protocols."
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Fingers crossed: "The most famous and influential Holocaust denier in the world today is the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
Hopefully, after tomorrow, he'll be the FORMER president of Iran.
Walter Reich: In some measure because of his statements about wiping Israel off the map and because of his effort toward nuclearization--which would provide the means to do this, as well as cause immense havoc and death in the region and beyond--I hope you're right. But I'm afraid he's not the only Iranian politician with such views and goals.
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Laurel, Md.: Assuming the suspect is found guilty and goes to prison, he will almost certainly get involved with prison white supremacist gangs, where he will be treated as a hero.
Even if he avoids prison, which seems possible considering his age, he's probably going to be considered a hero amongst people with similar beliefs. How do you deal with that?
Walter Reich: He may well be considered a hero by some white supremacists, though I understand that some have disavowed him.
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20006: During your tenure as director, was planning for security a large effort, and do you know how much of that changed due to 9/11?
Walter Reich: Institutions that involve Jewish themes are potential targets, of course.
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Reston, Va: Sadly, the museum will need to beef up surveillance. Perhaps imaging technology would help.
Walter Reich: Any technology that helps stop such attacks must be considered. A balance must always be struck between public safety and the privacy of visitors to a public institution. But public safety is of extreme importance.
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Washington DC: Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something fundamental, but can you explain why someone with anti-Semitic viewpoints would also be a Holocaust denier? I would think that the opposite would be true, and that they would be proudly supporting the events that occurred 60 years ago. It it as simple as they express those viewpoints when among similar minded people, but realize that such opinions are unacceptable in public?
I was just at the museum on Monday, and while the experience then was powerful, yesterday's events have driven home even deeper the importance of such institutions.
Walter Reich: This is a very important question, and I wish it were possible to respond to it adequately in this format. Alas, it isn't; we have only a couple of minutes to go in this session. In a way, the Holocaust gave anti-Semitism an especially bad image. It showed what anti-Semitism can lead to. That's one of the reasons anti-Semites deny that the Holocaust happened--in a way, to make anti-Semitism less unacceptable. I'm afraid, though, that, after several decades of diminished anti-Semitism following the Holocaust, it has resurfaced, and rabidly so, in several parts of the world, including Europe and the Middle East.
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Walter Reich: Thanks to all of you for your excellent questions. I wish I were able to respond to all of them, and at length. This is an event that will continue to be in the news for a while--and I hope it provokes more questions and more answers, or at least attempts at answers. Thank you!
Walter Reich
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---Holocaust Museum Shooting, Other Recent Attacks Prove Domestic Extremism a Threat---
By Alex Kingsbury
Posted June 10, 2009
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2009/06/10/holocaust-museum-shooting-other-recent-attacks-prove-domestic-extremism-a-threat.html
A month before a suspected white supremacist walked into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington and opened fire, the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic right-wing extremism was the most pressing domestic terrorist threat that the country faced.
Conservatives were outraged that the DHS analysts had singled out antiabortion and antitax radicals for scrutiny. But the report was part of a series that DHS compiles on domestic dangers from all sides of the political spectrum, an area that's taken a back seat to overseas threats.
A series of recent incidents shows the prescience of those reports and illustrates the worrying reality that terrorism often comes from inside the homeland. Worse still, the reports caution that such attacks are likely to happen again. In the past two weeks, the country has seen the bombing of a Starbucks coffee shop in New York City, the arrest of four men for allegedly plotting to blow up synagogues and shoot down planes, the shooting of two soldiers at an Army recruitment center in Arkansas, the assassination of a doctor inside a Kansas church, and the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. Although these are not all cases of right-wing extremism, each is an example of domestic terrorism. "We still face threats from al Qaeda," FBI chief Robert Mueller warned Congress in May during a briefing on threats facing the nation. "But we must also focus on less well-known terrorist groups, as well as homegrown terrorists."
The man authorities say was the shooter at the Holocaust Museum, James von Brunn, was a well-known white supremacist who had railed against blacks, Jews, and the power of the federal government. In 1981, Brunn walked into the Federal Reserve Board with a shotgun, according to news reports. In another incident in early April, three police officers in Pittsburgh were killed by another reported white supremacist.
In another recent high-profile incident, George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who performed legal abortions, was shot and killed last Sunday as he stood in the aisle of his church. Scott Roeder, the man charged in Tiller's murder, echoes the DHS report on right-wing extremism. Believed to have been a member of an antigovernment militia in Montana during the mid-1990s, Roeder had a history of railing against taxes and abortion, according to news reports. "We can see from these incidents that the U.S. is not immune from these types of attacks and that a lone gunman or cell can kill just as effectively," says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. "But it also shows that those operating outside an organized terrorist network lack the training and tradecraft to make their attacks either sustained or a systemic threat." After the killing, the U.S. Marshals Service was instructed to increase security at the country's abortion clinics.
There was no call to reinforce security at military recruiting stations, however, after Abdulhakim Muhammad allegedly shot two soldiers smoking cigarettes in the parking lot of an Army center in Arkansas. Pvt. William Long was killed and another soldier was wounded. Muhammad was reportedly angry over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
Four Muslim men also pleaded their innocence before a judge in a White Plains, N.Y., courthouse after being accused of plotting to blow up a pair of synagogues and down military aircraft with a shoulder-fired missile. The feds had been keeping tabs on the men for a year and sold them the missile and explosives, which had been deactivated. The four were reportedly angered over the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S. forces.
The motives are less clear for a bizarre bomb attack early last week that hurt no one but blew out the windows of a Manhattan Starbucks. Police speculate that antiglobalization protesters, who've targeted the coffee chain in the past, may have been responsible. While these latest attacks are examples of more traditional violence, DHS is gearing up for yet another new type of threat: cyberattacks.
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