Document:International Security Council, extract from The "Terrorism" Industry
book extract by Edward S. Herman dated 1990Subjects: International Security Council
Source: The "Terrorism" Industry
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The International Security Council is the main U.S. agency of the Moon system in the field of terrorism propaganda. In a brochure issued by ISC in October 1987, ISC head Joseph Churba acknowledges the "generous and unwavering support of CAUSA International and that of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, whose understanding of the threat to Judaeo-Christian civilization is unique, as is his selfless commitment to freedom, security and peace" (p. 2).
The predecessor organization to ISC, the Center for International Security (CIS), was organized by Churba in 1979. Its board included Major General George Keegan, Jr. (USAF, ret.), William Kintner, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (USN, ret.), Lieutenant General Daniel Graham (USA, ret.), and Bernard Yoh, cofounder of Accuracy in Media and former counterinsurgency consultant to South Vietnam puppet president Ngo Dinh Diem and other terrorist governments in the U.S. sphere of influence. Also on the board were Frank Gervasi and Joan Peters. These reflect CIS-ISC and Churba's longtime and fanatical devotion to Israel. Gervasi is a well-known and passionate apologist for Israeli policy; Peters is the author of 'From Time Immemorial', a volume published in 1984 to demonstrate that Palestinian Arabs were intruders into Palestine (so that, by an easy inference, they were not unreasonably denied political rights in that area). [1] The reorganized ISC board of 1986 continued to include Kintner and Churba, but it now contained seven Mexican conservatives, four retired military officers (now including Gordon Sumner, Jr.), and several other right-wingers.
The ISC advances its proclaimed goal of formulating "global strategic analysis" by sponsoring international conferences, through its quarterly journal, 'Global Affairs', and by taking out full-page ads in such organs as the New York Times. There it posts its various "declarations" on issues ranging from the security of Southeast Asia (NYT, May 4, 1986) to the Reagan-Gorbachev summit (NYT, Dec. 9, 1985). In both of these ads, the world is divided into the good and the evil, the problem being the naivete of the leaders of the good and their failure to grasp fully the sinister intentions of the enemy. In both, also, the Strategic Defense Initiative is lauded as a marvel of creativity: "a wholly defensive system. . . indispensable to the restoration of a nuclear balance." Among the publications of CIS and ISC are Frank Gervasi's 1982 booklet, 'Media Coverage: The War in Lebanon', and papers by S. B. Kelly, 'The Soviet Penetration of Iran', and Daniel O. Graham, 'Why Not Defend America?'
In 1963 Churba entered into a professional relationship with Meier Kahane in an operation they called Consultant Research Association, which infiltrated organizations and collected information on behalf of the FBI and other government and private organizations. During the Vietnam War period, with seed money from the government and certain labor groups, the two of them established the Fourth of July Movement, an organization that tried to mobilize support on college campuses for the Vietnam War. The two wrote a book in 1968, The 'Jewish Stake in Vietnam', secretly funded and published by the U.S. government, the theme of which was the importance for Israel that the United States keep its commitments in places like South Vietnam. [2]
After obtaining a doctorate in international relations at Columbia University, Churba worked on the faculty of the Air University till 1972 and then became a Middle East intelligence estimator for the air force. In 1979 he organized CIS. Following Reagan's election, Churba entered the government again as a "senior policy advisor" on disarmament, resigning once again in 1982.
Churba's devotion to Israel has never "flagged. His writings and campaigns have constantly focused on Israel, its service to U.S. interests, its creative efforts in Lebanon. [3] Churba has argued, time and again, that the PLO is little more than a Soviet-front organization and that the mere presence of Arabs in Israel should be cause for worry. According to a piece distributed by CIS, "the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank are Jordanian citizens and, therefore, enemy nationals vis-a-vis Israel under the rules of war."
Given Churba's view of Palestinians as enemy agents, he is popular in Israeli "counter-terrorism" circles, and he has close ties to the Israeli military and intelligence. A major conference on state terrorism and the international system was held by the ISC and CAUSA International in January 1986 in the hospitable environment of Tel Aviv, with speeches by Dr. Bo Hi Pak, Arnaud de Borchgrave, Charles Lichenstein, Gordon Sumner, Jr. (USA, ret.), and Yehuda Blum, former Israeli ambassador to the UN. [4]
Churba joined other luminaries of the extreme right in signing an ad in the May 1985 'Conservative Digest', which denounced Chester Crocker and the Reagan administration for selling out South Africa and failing to support "the courageous RENAMO Freedom Fighters" and others struggling against Soviet tyranny. Churba is well regarded by Birchite John Rees, who has a flattering introduction on Churba preceding his interview with that "distinguished founding director" of CIS in the November 3, 1982 issue of the 'Review of the News', the John Birch Society's weekly. An interesting feature of that interview, displaying Churba's quality of intellect and his position on the extreme right, is his expressed view that the freeze movement "is an extension of Soviet propaganda, an extension of the Politburo's 'active measures' agencies."
Churba is connected to other elements of the far right through his service as advisor to GeoMilitech Consultants Corporation, along with John Singlaub of WACL and Edward Luttwak of CSIS. GeoMilitech was founded in 1984 by Barbara Studley, a friend of Singlaub's, apparently as an arms conduit for the secret government. The firm supplied arms to the Salvadoran government as well as the Nicaraguan contras, Singlaub using GeoMilitech to procure $5.3 million in weapons, which were transferred to Adolfo Calero in June 1985.[5]
Despite this background of close connection to the Unification Church and his extreme bias and fanaticism, Churba has appeared on numerous television and radio programs as a terrorism expert, including CNN News, the "MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour;' NBC News, ABC's "Nightline;" and the "Larry King Show." His line and organizational connections, though far-right, are within the bounds acceptable to the Western establishment.
Notes
- ^ 1. We have never seen any mention in the mainstream press of Joan Peters's affiliation with CIS, a very far-right organization. For a devastating analysis of Peters's work and its kind reception in the West, see Norman Finkelstein and Edward Said, "The Peters Affair;' pt. I of Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens, eds., Blaming the Victims (London: Verso, 1988).
- ^ 2. Rohert I. Friedman, "The Sayings of Rabbi Kahane;' New York Review of Books, Feb. 13, 1986, p. 15.
- ^ 3. "The Israelis did a great job, I think, by knocking out the P.L.O., another Soviet surrogate, and in beating down the Syrians by destroying their Air Force and whatever capability they had for offensive war." Interview with John Rees, Revmv of the News, Nov. 3, 1982, p. 43.
- ^ 4. Among those serving as expert consultants to the ISC conference on the issue of terrorism was Ryan Quade Emerson. Emerson, a self-styled terrorologist, operates the International Research Center on Terrorism in Arlington, Virginia, and publishes a newsletter intended for distribution to journalists and law enforcement officials. His Terrorist Intelligence Report rehashes old news stories and reports on the activities of domestic "subversives" designated by Emerson as potential terrorists. His April 15, 1985 Report contained information on the Bethesda Co-op, a natural foods store in Cabin John, Maryland, which, according to "the most reliable sources;' was actually a "communications center for sub-agents of the Soviet KGB and Cuban DGI." As of August 1985, Emerson was operating a computer network on "terrorism" (dubbed "Riley," according to an Emerson press release, "after the popular television series, 'Riley, Ace of Spies' ") designed to he accessed by government and industry. The subscription cost was $300 per year, or $17 per connect hour. Emerson has been a professional FBI and IRS informant since the 1960s, reporting to government and police agencies on the doings of political dissidents nationwide. According to the Washington Post for Oct. 26, 1986, one of Emerson's most lucrative positions was as a "security and terrorism advisor" to Lyndon laRouche. After working as an advisor to laRouche, Emerson was enlisted to testify against him for credit card fraud and theft.
- ^ 5. This is according to a sworn deposition by Singlaub; Inside The Shadow Government, Declaration of Plaintiff's Counsel Filed by the Christic Institute, U.S. District Court, Miami, March 31, 1988, pp. 123-24.
