1. CS Prakash and Lyndon LaRouche - ngin
2. Lyndon LaRouche - The Conspiracy Begins - Andy Rowell
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1. CS Prakash and Lyndon LaRouche - ngin
Recently we posted the latest enormity from AgBioView -- the CS Prakash list that has previously posted claims that Greenpeace were responsible for murder and that GM critics were worse than Hitler.
On this occasion the rhetoric of hate came from the editor of the magazine 21st Century Science & Technology. It followed on from an article the magazine had published by Prakash arguing that GM crops were the solution to world hunger. When Peter Tabuns of Greenpeace Canada wrote a letter querying the validity of this line of argument, the magazine's editor not only gave Prakash the opportunity to make a lengthy reply to Tabuns' letter but himself joined in the attack:
'We find it less than honest that an organization which supports terrorism and genocide (such as by opposition to nuclear energy and the banning of DDT), should label promotion of a useful technology as "irresponsible" and "unforgivable." '
The extremity of the "terrorism and genocide" claim, which was then posted out to the Prakash list, might seem surprising from a magazine that from its title might appear just a hobby-horse for techophiles. But the magazine Prakash has been contributing to is about a lot more than just support for techno-products like GM crops.
In his book 'Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environmental Movement', the investigative journalist Andy Rowell reveals whose behind 21st Century Science and Technology. The publication, according to Rowell - see below, is controlled by none other than Lyndon LaRouche -- the far right extremist, techno-utopian and anti-semite.
Below we reproduce the section of Rowell's book dealing specifically with LaRouche and his attitude to environmentalist like Greenpeace. It includes the following paragraph which may have resonance for many who have been following the GM debate and some of those contributing to Prakash's side of the argument:
"Because of his pro-nuclear stance, LaRouche has links to the industry, in particular the nuclear establishment, who although they must know he is an extremist are prepared to support him because of his pro-nuclearviews. LaRouche's 1980 presidential campaign committee solicited donations from executives of nuclear power and aerospace corporations', according to Dennis King. Dozens of scientists and engineers signed a full-page Fusion advertisement backing LaRouche for President."
Prakash, it will be remembered, previously put in a major appearance in the pro-GM 'Equinox' TV documentary on Channel 4 directed by Martin Durkin who had links to the Living Marxism (LM) magazine, which in turn links to the Revolutionary Communist Party, a secretive and fundamentalist Marxist group who find it convenient to promote an extreme pro-corporate agenda. Durkin's history of extreme inaccuracy and misinformation over science subjects is well established. http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/equinox.htm
Prakash has also appeared on the London platform of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the extreme right wing libertarian group linked, via its Director and Environment Director, to the Big Tobacco founded ESEF -- part of the Philip Morris "broader impact" strategy for defending tobacco in the context of broader issues and interests like those of the "packaging industry, agri-chemical industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, biotech industry" etc. http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/rightwing.htm
Among the motley crew posting to the Prakash list are many with connections, like the IEA, to a new group called 'No More Scares'. According to a recent PR Watch article on 'No More Scares' and its publication “The Fear Profiteers”:
"Co-editors... included Milloy, Bonner Cohen, John Carlisle, Michael Fumento, Michael Gough, Henry Miller, Kenneth Smith and Elizabeth Whelan. All have a track record of accepting funding from, and defending, industries that make dangerous products and pollute the environment. Many, including Milloy himself, have been outspoken apologists for the tobacco industry, one of the deadliest consumer products." http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/168.htm
Can Prakash really be unaware of the unsavoury company he keeps? Or is it that, like LaRouche's nuclear industry supporters, he just doesn't care as long as they are willing to back his GM agenda. That, however, suggests a degree of self-interest and moral vacuity that sits ill with a pitch that claims GM crops as part of a humanitarian project to improve the lot of humankind.
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2. Lyndon LaRouche - The Conspiracy Begins - Andy Rowell
From the 'Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environmental Movement' by Andy Rowell (Routledge, 1996)
Lyndon LaRouche - The Conspiracy Begins
‘Greenpeace, Shock Troops for a New Dark Age' ran the headline of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) in April 1989. The article alluded that ‘Greenpeace, indeed, is the ecological version of the Nazi SA, or what today might be called "eco-spetsnaz commandos."' This was just one of a number of startling accusations made in the article . EIR is a magazine associated with extreme political chameleon, Lyndon LaRouche, someone renown for his anti-semitic and racist views as well as his wild conspiracy theories such as the British Royal family being behind the global drug's trade and the environmental movement.
LaRouche, a former Marxist, did a severe political backflip in the early 1970's to the right, where he has remained ever since. Dennis King, who has written an exposé into LaRouche, outlines what happened next ‘Organisers for his [LaRouche's] National Caucus of Labour Committees (NCLC) began contacting everyone they and their fellow radicals of the anti-Vietnam War movement had reviled - the CIA, and FBI, the Pentagon, local police red squads, wealthy conservatives, GOP [Republican] strategists, and even the Ku Klux Klan. Their announced objective was to build a grand coalition to rid American politics of the Enemy Within - the evil leftists, liberals, environmentalists and Zionists .'
Funding for his operations has been partly derived by pressuring supporters into taking out huge personal loans which are never paid back, credit card fraud and through a private political intelligence gathering service . Sometimes LaRouche goes too far, even in the eyes of the law. In December 1988, Larouche and six top aides were convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges and were sent to jail . Finally released from prison on 26 January 1994, his global empire was kept running by his wife Helga Zepp LaRouche, whilst he was inside.
Although the LaRouche organisation is headquartered in the USA, mainly run as the National Caucus of Labour Committees (NCLC), it basically spans most of the world, run either through the International Caucus of Labour Committees, (ICLC), European Labour Party, the Schiller Institute or a LaRouche publication . LaRouche publications are sold all over the world, and apart from pushing conspiracy theories, concentrate on two things. Firstly they advocate a ‘new world economic order,' as the world is heading for economic collapse. ‘Only we have the knowledge and methods for teaching a new elite the necessary historical, scientific and above all, economic knowledge the world needs for its survival' says LaRouche . Secondly Larouche's followers vehemently promote nuclear power and high-tech industry, peddling fusion and fission power as the panaceas to the worlds's problems, whilst at the same time castigating anti-nuclear critics. ‘Vote for me and I'll build 2,500 nuclear power plants', LaRouche told voters in his 1980 presidential bid .
More often than not Larouche articles mix fiction with conspiracy theories. The Executive Intelligence Review article alleged that Greenpeace could cause a major environmental disaster by sabotage to will bring into operation a global "crisis management apparatus," that will be the de facto interim government of a "green fascist" new world order .' The article also exaggerated the accusations from a 1989 film, Survival in the High North, by the Icelandic film-maker, and arch-Greenpeace critic, Magnus Gudmundsson . Lyndon LaRouche, and publications associated with him have publicised Gudmundsson's work all over the world. Gudmundsson's relationship with the LaRouche people is examined more in Chapter Thirteen.
The EIR article also alleged that it is the British Royal family and the Soviets that are Greenpeace's backers . This is entirely consistent with Larouche's beliefs. An Editorial in 21 Century Science and Technology, another Larouche publication, claimed at the same time as the EIR article that ‘In the Federal Republic of Germany, the Soviets have also used the Greens as a cover for covert military manoeuvres, involving their own spetsnaz special-forces troops in acts of sabotage and even, on occasion, assassinations '.
Carrying on the conspiracy conundrum, the EIR article contended that Greenpeace is one of the ‘officially patronised groups of the Lucis Trust, the umbrella organisation for the New Age movement, which was originally known as the Lucifer Trust '. The Trust, according to LaRouche, ‘is the leading, putatively respectable Britain-based Satan cult (it worships Lucifer) '. Furthermore the Trust opposes ‘the materialism of science and every form of dogmatic theology, especially the Christian religion.. and promotes a pagan form of Theosophical religion.' Other prominent front-organizations for the Lucis Trust, apart from Greenpeace are the following: The United Nations Association, The World Wildlife Fund UK, The Findhorn Foundation, Amnesty International, The Rudolf Steiner School, UNESCO, and UNICEF .
Feeling confused? What is the connection with Greenpeace, Soviets, Paganism and wildly rampant conspiracy theories?
‘LaRouchians accuse "dark forces" of being behind whatever happens in the world' writes journalist Jerry Sommer, who has spent time studying LaRouche's activities in Germany, ‘The conspirators are not always the same, and the conspiracy theories are not always logical, but conspirators are nonetheless almost always at work. The conspiracy theories are often so abstruse that it is simply incredible how people can cling to them. But they are often cleverly intermingled with facts and half truths, or legitimate political positions, to form an apparently inextricable tangle .'
According to LaRouche everything can be traced to Babylonian times, and the forces of order - epitomised by Plato - and the forces of chaos - symbolized by Aristotle and the evil oligarchists. ‘LaRouche claims that his followers represent a 3,000-year-old faction of "Neoplatonic humanists" locked in mortal struggle with an equally ancient "oligarchy" ' says Dennis King. ‘For the LaRouche people', says political analyst Chip Berlet,‘ if you accept the idea that there is a secret cabal that has been operating since the fall of the temple of Babylon, that was behind the Aristotelian thinking, if you really believe that that is true, of course when you look at the environmental movement you see in it this conspiracy '.
Along with environmentalists and the Rockefellers, LaRouche often singles out Jews, especially Jewish bankers, as being behind the global conspiracy. Henry Kissinger is a particular LaRouche favourite, too, often being referred to as a ‘Soviet Agent'. So too are the British bankers and the British Royal family. In LaRouche's mind, Britain can be blamed for about anything, even Hitler was a British agent, according to LaRouche . According to the LaRouchians, the British Monarchy are also behind the international drug trade, as was outlined in their book Dope Inc: Britain's Opium War Against the US, published in 1978 .
Delving deeper into LaRouche's world we find that he considers many of the key conspirators part of a Malthusian plot to take over the world. Before the UN Conference on Population in Cairo, in 1994, the LaRouche Organisation was rampant in its opposition. The April 29th edition of Executive Intelligence Review ran a headline ‘Hitler in Blue Helmets: The Case for Halting Cairo 94', in which the conference is described as the ‘direct heir to the 1932 New York eugenics conference which set Nazi policy'. The New Federalist, another LaRouche publication, quoted LaRouche as saying ‘There is no difference between those in the UN who are convening and supporting this population conference, and Adolf Hitler.' The article alleged that U.N Secretary Boutros-Ghali, was ‘Britain's Brown-Skinned Hitler' who was installed by the British in 1992, because the British consider it easier to kill hundreds of millions of Africans and Asians under the direction of a brown-skinned agent, rather than in their own name '.
The UN is, according to LaRouche, attempting to conquer the world with a police state or a UN controlled ‘New World Order'. Executive Intelligence Review called the Earth Summit in 1992 ‘the Mother Earth cult festival in Rio de janeiro, which is intended to spread mass psychosis and institutionalise a global police state in the name of saving the environment'. The was, according to EIR, ‘fascism being promoted in Rio: the most evil threat, in sheer scale, which has ever faced humanity. For that, we need a herculean effort to educate people to overcome the brainwashing of the environmentalist media '.
Asked just how significant a player LaRouche was in propagating the international anti-environmental message, Chip Berlet, responds ‘He has always been important [on both the national and international level], because he is like a deranged bee, cross-pollinating various flowers. His people are relentless in their pursuit of networking and even though people in the anti-environmental movement will swear up and down that he is crazy and that they do not work with him, in fact many of their staff do .'
One such busy bee, is Rogelio Maduro, an Associate Editor of 21st Century Science and Technology and rising anti-environmentalist. He is visible bridge between the LaRouche organisation and the Wise Use movement, and the LaRouche Magazine 21st Century Science and Technology is increasingly becoming the mouth-piece for anti-greens too. ‘Even a limited review of Larouche-related publications makes clear that his organisation has found fertile ground among "wise use" and "property rights"', wrote Dan Barry and Ken Cook from the Environmental Working Group in 1994 .
Maduro is also a leading anti-environmental scientist, who co-authored the book "The Holes in the Ozone Scare'.21st Century is peppered with articles claiming the fraudulence of environmental science and promoted Dixy Lee Ray, another leading science sceptic, up until her death in 1993. The process of debunking environmental science is expanded on in Chapter Five. But there are other links between the Wise Use movement and 21st Century. Hugh Elsaesser is on the Board of both the Environmental Conservation Organisation (ECO), a Wise Use network of over 400 groups and the Scientific Advisory board of 21st Century. An article by Dr. William Hazeltine, another ECO Board Member appeared in the Summer 1994 Edition of 21st Century . Other prominent Wise Use activists have also had articles published in 21st Century, such as William Perry Pendley, Kathleen Marquardt, and Michael Coffman . An article by the hardline anti-environmental group, the Sahara Club, appeared in the Summer 1991 Edition . Barry Clausen, a private investigator who infiltrated Earth First, also has an article published and book advert in the Spring 1994 Edition of 21st Century is a close friend of Ron Arnold. He has also teamed up with Roger Maduro to write a publication ‘Eco-Terrorism Watch' (See Chapter Five).
One critical issue about LaRouche is his organisations ability to collect and trade intelligence information all around the world. In the early eighties, LaRouche and Helga met with the serving CIA deputy director to discuss Germany's environmental and peace movements . Admiral Booby Ray Inman is said to have received ‘enticing information' from LaRouche on the German Green Party. ‘At the time, nobody in intelligence was covering them at all' said Inman . But there are other Larouche attacks on the environmental movement in Germany. Also in the early eighties the ELP attacked leading green activist Petra Kelly, who was leader of the German greens until her death. Due to the harassment, Kelly sued for libel. According to her Attorney the ‘LaRouchians has engaged in a "vicious campaign that made it difficult for her to appear in public ."
The ELP had claimed that Greens were both fascists and were communist controlled, a slight contradiction in terms. For example the Party had, on the one hand distributed leaflets against the ‘green environmental fascists' , whilst on the other, Helga Zepp LaRouche called for the German green Party to be banned in the eighties because it was run by the KGB . Other magazines associated with LaRouche have also targeted Greenpeace. Fusion Magazine in Germany has remarked that ‘Greenpeace suggests using organic fertilisers to help save dying forests. Question: how many "Greens" do you need to fertilise a tree? Answer: Five. Actually one is enough, but you need five to persuade him to get into the bone crusher' .
Because of his pro-nuclear stance, LaRouche has links to the industry, in particular the nuclear establishment, who although they must know he is an extremist are prepared to support him because of his pro-nuclear views. LaRouche's 1980 presidential campaign committee solicited donations from executives of nuclear power and aerospace corporations', according to Dennis King. Dozens of scientists and engineers signed a full-page Fusion advertisement backing LaRouche for President. One thing is certain, though, about LaRouche, and that is that his conspiratorial rhetoric is currying flavour with many people in the US, not just in the nuclear industry, but on the extreme right.