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In ''ZOG Ate My Brains'', Berlet warns of a "troubling resurgence on the political Left" of ] ] as a result of Gulf intervention and the ]. In ''ZOG Ate My Brains'', Berlet warns of a "troubling resurgence on the political Left" of ] ] as a result of Gulf intervention and the ].


==Criticism of the left== ===Criticism of Berlet===
During the 1988 ], Berlet wrote a paper titled "Clouds Blur the Rainbow," which was critical of the ] and the third-party presidential campaign of ], alleging the group was more of a ] for a ] ] led by ], than it was a left-wing political party.

During the 1991 ], Berlet began criticizing left-wing critics of the intelligence community as being channels — wittingly or otherwise — for conspiracy theories which he believes have their roots in the extreme right. In articles in '']'' and '']'', Berlet criticized the ], Victor Marchetti, ], ], ], ], and the so-called ] theory — which alleges that ]'s team made a deal with the ] government to ensure that the American hostages being held in ] would not be released before the 1980 presidential election.

Political Research Associates published a report by Berlet in 1990 entitled "Right Woos Left," in which he claimed that, though these conspiracy theories are embraced by the left, their origins lie with the extreme political right. His book ''Right-Wing Populism in America'', published in 2000, continued exploring the relationship between racism, anti-Semitism, conspiracism, and what Berlet calls "]".

==Criticism of Berlet==
Some critics of Berlet consider his actions during the 1990s to have been unfair to left-wing activists in America. In 1991, Berlet mostly limited his criticism to groups on the left who were prepared to form alliances with organizations considered to be anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, or ], such as ] and the ]. He later extended his criticism to those willing to work with the libertarian ] and with industrialist ]. He also criticized ], ], and ], who work with public figures on the right on common issues of concern, such as ], but who, Berlet says, seldom raise questions about the racism, sexism, or homophobia, as he sees it, of their right-wing coalition partners. Berlet argues that left-wing activists in such coalitions need to maintain a position of principled self-criticism and refrain from understating issues of bigotry. This arguably hardline stance has attracted criticism from a number of individuals.

Berlet has been criticized by '']'' for having accused the ], in a 1993 op-ed piece for the '']'', of down-playing the right-wing threat while focusing on left-wing groups . Berlet has been criticized by '']'' for having accused the ], in a 1993 op-ed piece for the '']'', of down-playing the right-wing threat while focusing on left-wing groups .


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], an internet activist who maintains the ] and ] websites, writes of Berlet, "He isn't critical of conspiracy thinking on the basis of the evidence, but waits until the theorist can be shown to have incorrect political associations. Berlet doesn't fit anywhere on our spectrum; he's running his own show" <small>(Original cite at www.namebase.org/news01.html) </small>. ], an internet activist who maintains the ] and ] websites, writes of Berlet, "He isn't critical of conspiracy thinking on the basis of the evidence, but waits until the theorist can be shown to have incorrect political associations. Berlet doesn't fit anywhere on our spectrum; he's running his own show" <small>(Original cite at www.namebase.org/news01.html) </small>.

Laird Wilcox, an American researcher and civil libertarian who studies fringe groups, makes a similar criticism of Political Research Associates. Wilcox says most watchdog groups have a tendency to use what he calls "links and ties" to imply connections between individuals and groups, he told '']'': "It's kind of like three Catholics hold up a bank in San Francisco, and you blame the Pope." Wilcox has criticized Berlet over an incident involving the Rev. Francis S. Strykowski, a 76-year-old Catholic priest who was forced to resign after Berlet identified him as having attended an ] meeting addressed by a former ] leader. Strykowski maintained he had not realized what kind of meeting it was. The problem with watchdog groups, Wilcox told ''The New American'', is that:

<blockquote> operating as intelligence networks for the FBI and other law enforcement bodies, but their information is highly prejudiced by their political outlook. The danger inherent in this arrangement is that these groups compile lists of organizations and individuals for police intelligence divisions, and then the police are expected to use that information to keep tabs on such people, who may have done nothing more than express a political view the &#8216;watchdogs&#8217; disagree with. </blockquote>

Berlet responded that Wilcox had mischaracterized PRA's activities. "Laird Wilcox is not an accurate or ethical reporter," Berlet told the ''Washington Times''. "He simply can't tolerate people who are his competition in this field."


====Criticism from David Horowitz==== ====Criticism from David Horowitz====

Revision as of 11:40, 14 May 2006

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Chip Berlet.
Used with permission, © 1999 MH/PRA

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John Foster "Chip" Berlet (born November 22, 1949) is the co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort and editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash. He is a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a left wing non-profit organization based in Somerville, Massachusetts that "bills itself as a watchdog group that monitors rightwing extremists" that he joined in 1982. Berlet specializes in the study of far-right political movements in the United States, particularly the religious right, white supremacists, homophobic groups, and paramilitary organizations. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories in the mainstream media and on the Internet. Much of his work is published online at PRA's website. He has been featured discussing dominionism in several recent news articles and at his blog.

Berlet, a paralegal investigator, is a former vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild, a liberal bar association. He has served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, and currently sits on the advisory board of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation. In 1982, he was a Mencken Awards finalist in the best news story category for "War on Drugs: The Strange Story of Lyndon LaRouche," which was published in High Times.

Biography

Background

Berlet attended the University of Denver for three years, where he majored in sociology with a journalism minor. He left the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist. Berlet did not complete his degree. In the mid-1970s, he went on to co-edit a series of books on student activism for the National Student Association and National Student Educational Fund. He also became an active shop steward with the National Lawyers' Guild.

During the late 1970s, he became the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of High Times magazine, and in 1979, he helped to organize citizens' hearings on FBI surveillance practices. From then until 1982, he worked as a paralegal investigator at the Better Government Association in Chicago, conducting research for an American Civil Liberties Union case, involving police surveillance by the Chicago police (which became known as the "Chicago Red Squad" case ). He also worked on cases filed against the FBI or police on behalf of the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago, the National Lawyers' Guild, the American Indian Movement, Socialist Workers Party, the Christic Institute, and the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group). Berlet served as Vice President of the National Lawyer's Guild, although he himself is not an attorney and does not have a law degree.

In 1982, Berlet joined Political Research Associates, and in 1985, he founded the Public Eye BBS, the first computer bulletin board aimed at challenging the spread of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi material through electronic media, and the first to provide an online application kit for requesting information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act . He helped found the "Chicago Area Friends of Albania", in 1983.

Berlet is also a photojournalist. His photographs, particularly of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi rallies, have been carried on the Associated Press wire, have appeared on book and magazine covers, album covers and posters, and have been published in the Denver Post, Washington Star, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

In 1996, he acted as an advisor on the Public Broadcasting Service documentary mini-series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, which was later published as a book by William Martin .

Berlet argues that the U.S. is currently undergoing a right-wing backlash that is the most sustained of its kind in U.S. history. He argues that, although 95% of the USA's hate crimes are committed by people not affiliated with any group, they have nevertheless internalized a narrative developed and promoted by the right wing that demonizes certain groups, including blacks or gays. He argues that the left must develop coalitions to find a way to counter-balance these narratives, instead of becoming isolated as another side of the "lunatic fringe" .

In ZOG Ate My Brains, Berlet warns of a "troubling resurgence on the political Left" of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories as a result of Gulf intervention and the 9/11 Terrorist attacks.

Criticism of Berlet

Berlet has been criticized by The New American for having accused the Anti-Defamation League, in a 1993 op-ed piece for the New York Times, of down-playing the right-wing threat while focusing on left-wing groups .

Online Journal Associate Editor Larry Chin charged that "Berlet is a gatekeeper who has made a career out of slandering and attacking whistleblowers, researchers and critics of the US government, of every political affiliation."

Daniel Brandt, an internet activist who maintains the Google Watch and Namebase websites, writes of Berlet, "He isn't critical of conspiracy thinking on the basis of the evidence, but waits until the theorist can be shown to have incorrect political associations. Berlet doesn't fit anywhere on our spectrum; he's running his own show" (Original cite at www.namebase.org/news01.html) .

Criticism from David Horowitz

In 2003, Berlet wrote for the Southern Poverty Law Center, "Into the Mainstream", an article which named conservative activist David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC) as one of an "array of right-wing foundations and think tanks support efforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable."

In an open letter to SPLC president Morris Dees, Horowitz asked that the article be removed from the SPLC website. Dees declined. Since then, Horowitz's Front Page Magazine has carried a response from Berlet accusing Horowitz of "dismiss the idea that there are serious unresolved issues concerning racism and white supremacy in the United States", a further rejoinder from Horowitz addressed to Dees, and an article by Chris Arabia harshly critical of Berlet.

On FrontPageMag.com, Chris Arabia wrote that "Chip Berlet has a demonstrated record of intolerance, inaccuracy, and distortion." He suggested Berlet is a communist, described him as having "genuine affection for Stalinism", and characterized Berlet as supportive of Albania's former dictator. The article accused Berlet of attempting to smear non-leftists by associating them with extreme right-wing groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

In a profile adapted from Arabia's article, Horowitz wrote that "Under Berlet's definition, any popular non-left politician is a fascist." As an example, Horowitz pointed to the 1992 Presidential election when Berlet wrote and emailed an article on fascism, along with comments on the presidential candidates, to a committee of the National Lawyers Guild. Horowitz said the email suggested that all the major candidates, except for Bill Clinton, had connections to or characteristics of fascism.

During the 1996 U.S. Presidential election, Berlet published another adapted version of this article in which he characterized as "antidemocratic forms of populism" the movements in support of Perot, Buchanan, and Pat Robertson. He described them as "three straight White Christian men trying to ride the same horse".

Bibliography

Books

  • (1995) editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, South End Press, Boston; paperback edition ISBN 0896085236
  • (2000) with Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, Guilford Press, New York; paperback edition ISBN 1572305622

Selected papers and articles

  • (1980) "Lyndon LaRouche and the U.S. Labor Party: Cult Fanaticism and the Politics of Paranoia", Chicago Reader, March 7, 1980.
  • (1981) "Ever Hear of Lyndon LaRouche? He May be Keeping Tabs on You", Des Moines Register, September 23, 1981.
  • (1982) "Private Spies: A New Threat To Constitutional Rights", The Public Eye, Vol. III, Issues 3 & 4, 1982.
  • (1982) with Russ Bellant and Dennis King, "LaRouche Cult Continues to Grow: Researchers Call for Probe of Potentially Illegal Acts", The Public Eye, Vol. III, Issues 3 & 4
  • (1984) with Russ Bellant "LaRouche Loses Libel Suit", The Guardian, NY, November 14, 1984
  • (1987) Review of Inventing Reality: The Politics of Mass Media by Michael Parenti, in The Library Quarterly, Vol. 57 No. 2, April
  • (1990) Review of The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane FBI Informant to Knesset Member, Z Magazine
  • (1995) "The Violence of Right-Wing Populism", Peace Review, Vol. 7, Nos. 3 & 4, pp. 283288. Oxford: Journals Oxford Ltd.
  • (1995) "Uniting to Defend the Four Freedoms", in Chip Berlet, ed., Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, Boston, South End Press.
  • (1995) with Margaret Quigley, "Theocracy & White Supremacy", in Chip Berlet, ed., Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, Boston, South End Press.
  • (1996) "Three Models for Analyzing Conspiracist Mass Movements of the Right", in Eric Ward, ed., Conspiracies: Real Grievances, Paranoia, and Mass Movements, Seattle: Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment .
  • (1997) "Fascism's Franchises: Stating the Differences from Movement to Totalitarian Government", presented to the American Sociological Association, Toronto
  • (1997) "An Introduction to Propaganda Analysis", in Uncovering the Right on Campus: A Guide to Resisting Conservative Attacks on Equality and Social Justice, Cambridge, MA: Center for Campus Organizing.
  • (1998) "Following the Threads: A Work in Progress", in Amy Elizabeth Ansell, ed., Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics, New York: Westview
  • (1998) "Mad as Hell: Right-wing Populism, Fascism, and Apocalyptic Millennialism", presented at the 14th World Congress of Sociology, International Sociological Association, Montreal
  • (1998) "The Ideological Weaponry of the American Right: 'Dangerous Classes' and 'Welfare Queens'", presented at the international symposium, The "American Model:" an Hegemonic Perspective for the End of the Millennium?, Group Regards Critiques, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • (1998) "Who's Mediating the Storm? Right-wing Alternative Information Networks", in Linda Kintz & Julia Lesage, eds., Culture, Media, and the Religious Right, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
  • (1998) "Y2K and Millennial Pinball: How Y2K Shapes Survivalism in the U.S. Christian Right, Patriot and Armed Militia Movements, and Far Right", presented at the annual symposium, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University
  • (1998) with Matthew N. Lyons, "One Key to Litigating Against Government Prosecution of Dissidents: Understanding the Underlying Assumptions, " Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report, in two parts, Vol. 5, No. 13, Vol. 5, No. 14, West Group.
  • (1999) "Abstaining from Bad Sects: Understanding Sects, Cadres, and Mass Movement Organizations"
  • (2000) with Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, New York: Guiford Press.
  • (2001) "Hate Groups, Racial Tension and Ethnoviolence in an Integrating Chicago Neighborhood 1976-1988", in Betty A. Dobratz, Lisa K. Walder, and Timothy Buzzell, eds., Research in Political Sociology, Volume 9: The Politics of Social Inequality, pp. 117-163.
  • (2002) "Anti-Masonic Conspiracy Theories: A Narrative Form of Demonization and Scapegoating", Heredom, Vol. 10, pp. 243-275.
  • (2002) "Encountering and Countering Political Repression", in The Global Activists Manual: Local Ways to Change the World, edited by Mike Prokosch, Laura Raymond, and Michael Prokosch, New York: Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books
  • (2004) "Mapping the Political Right: Gender and Race Oppression in Right-Wing Movements", in Abby Ferber, ed, Home-Grown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism, New York: Routledge.

References

Sources

  1. Berlet, Chip (2003). "Into the Mainstream". Intelligence Report. The Sothern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  2. Horowitz, David (2003). "An Open Letter To Morris Dees". FrontPageMagazine.com. FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  3. Arabia, Chris (2003). "Chip Berlet: Leftist Lie Factory". FrontPageMagazine.com. FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  4. Horowitz, David. "CHIP BERLET". A Guide to the Political Left. DiscoverTheNetwork.org. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  5. Berlet, Chip (1992). "What is Fascism?". The Cybrary of the Holocaust. NLG Civil Liberties Committee. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  6. Berlet, Chip (1996). "The Buchanan campaign incorporates themes of right Wing Populism, Scapegoating, Reactionary Politics and Fascism". Too Close for Comfort: Right Wing Populism, Scapegoating, and Fascist Potentials in US Politics. www.hartford-hwp.com. Retrieved 2006-04-23.

Further reading

External links

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