Dear Friend,

In recent months we’ve put a lot of time and effort into publicizing the outrageous arrest and imprisonment of Ernst Zundel, and to exposing the lies behind President Bush’s reckless war against Iraq.

Today I’m writing to report on some of our recent work, and to ask for your help during a time of emergency for the IHR.

Ernst was arrested on Feb. 5 at his home in Tennessee, and a short time later deported to Canada — even though he is married to an American citizen, Ingrid Rimland — on the pretext that he missed an interview date with immigration authorities.

For weeks now Canadian authorities have been holding him in prison, without bail. Citing supposed ties, years ago, to “white supremacist” groups, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) — something like the FBI — contends that Zundel is a risk to national security. While acknowledging that he is not violent himself, CSIS argues that material published by Zundel might cause “like-minded individuals to engage in violence.”

That Canadian authorities should resort to such a far-fetched argument only underscores the politically motivated nature of the campaign against him. Regardless of the formal reasons given for his arrest, jailing and deportation, it appears that — once again — Ernst was targeted because of his dissident views about history.

In fact, Ernst is a peaceful man who, as even his adversaries concede, has never advocated violence against anyone. He is himself a victim of hate and violence. He has survived at least three attempts on his life, including a devastating arson attack against his residence. And anyway, if Ernst Zundel is really such a threat to “national security,” Canadian society is fragile indeed.

Far from being a danger to Canada, he deserves the gratitude of Canadians for waging a protracted legal battle that strengthened the rights of all Canadians.

Jewish-Zionist groups have been demanding that Canadian authorities deport him to Germany, where he faces years of imprisonment for the “thought crime” of “denying the Holocaust.” As you know, “Holocaust denial” is against the law in Germany, France, Switzerland and some other European countries. Such laws are inherently unjust because they criminalize nonconformist views of only one chapter of history — the wartime fate of Europe’s Jews. Dissident views of other chapters of history are not similarly prohibited.

Ernst Zundel is in prison not because his views are unpopular, or because he’s a “security risk.” He’s in prison because Jewish-Zionist groups want him there. He’s a prisoner because he holds and promotes views that the Jewish-Zionist lobby considers dangerous to its interests.

Bishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recently told an American audience: “People are scared in this country to say [that] wrong is wrong, because the Jewish lobby is powerful — very powerful.” He’s right. In Canada, as in the United States, politicians and journalists are in fearful awe of Jewish-Zionist power.

This lobby is the decisive, critical factor in the decades-old campaign to silence Ernst Zundel. The only sustained and institutionalized effort to imprison him has come from this lobby, which includes the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association, and the League for Human Rights of B’nai B’rith (with the Anti-Defamation League, its counterpart in the US).

It is not Zundel, but rather his Jewish-Zionist adversaries, who are to be feared. Canada’s Jewish-Zionist groups, immeasurably more powerful and influential than he, openly support and collaborate with the “Jewish supremacist” state of Israel. And Israel’s “Jewish supremacy” is not merely rhetorical; the Zionist regime brutally oppresses an entire population in brazen defiance of international law and world opinion.

Zundel’s Achievement

Ernst is probably best known for his central role in the two great “Holocaust Trials” in Toronto, 1985 and 1988. He was brought to court on a charge of “publishing false news” by reprinting a booklet, Did Six Million Really Die?.

Those two lengthy trials have been the closest thing anywhere to full scale debates on the Holocaust issue. In defending himself in a legal battle that was forced on him, Ernst brought together an impressive international team of scholars, specialists and researchers, and presented to the world voluminous and compelling evidence refuting the Holocaust extermination story.

Among those who testified on his behalf in those trials were Dr. Robert Faurisson, David Irving, Dr. William Lindsey, Udo Walendy, and Bradley Smith, and, most notably, Fred Leuchter, the American gas chamber expert who spoke about his on-site forensic examination of the alleged extermination gas chambers in Poland. (I was also called to the stand, testifying for five days as an expert witness in March 1988.)

For the first time ever, “Holocaust survivors” and Holocaust historians were closely and critically questioned under oath about their claims and views. The confusion and ignorance of these witnesses were laid bare, resulting in astonishing headlines and reports in papers across the country.

Although Ernst was found guilty and sentenced to nine months imprisonment, the country’s highest tribunal later overturned the verdict. On appeal, Canada’s Supreme Court threw out the conviction, declaring on August 27, 1992, that the archaic “false news” law under which he had been convicted was a violation of the country’s Charter of Rights.

His victory only further enraged his adversaries.

Ernst’s last great legal battle (until his recent arrest) was fought out before the “Human Rights Tribunal” in Toronto on charges of promoting “hatred or contempt” against Jews through the Internet web site operated from the US by Ingrid Rimland. From the outset, the Tribunal declared that the truth or validity of the supposedly “hateful” items was not a consideration. This outrageous restriction made a fair hearing impossible. (I testified in this proceeding, Oct. 4-6, 2000.) As expected, the Tribunal ultimately ruled against him.

After 42 years in Canada, Ernst moved to the United States, where he married Ingrid in January 2000. Since the summer of 2000, they lived quietly in a mountainous region of eastern Tennessee.

Right after his arrest, Ernst and his wife asked for our help in dealing with the media. We readily agreed. As a result, in recent weeks I’ve spoken with dozens of reporters and have conducted numerous interviews about the still-developing case. Some highlights:

• Ingrid and I appeared together as guests on the Jeff Rense radio program, Feb. 10, which is heard on more than a hundred stations across the US. On Feb. 27 I returned to the Rense show, this time alone, to report for an hour on the case, to point out the outrageous and shameful character of Ernst’s treatment, and to put his work and impact in perspective. (These broadcasts can be heard on line or through the Jeff Rense web site.)

• Canada’s widely-viewed CTV network “News at 11” program broadcast a portion of an interview with me as part of a report on the Zundel case, Feb. 19. A television crew drove from Los Angeles to film the interview in our office.

• A portion of another interview with me was heard across Canada on the CBC network radio program, “World at Six,” Feb. 20.

• Portions of my interviews with reporters have appeared in Canadian papers. (Such as in the National Post, Feb. 20. )

• A lengthy and sympathetic interview with me about Ernst’s arrest and deportation, with background on his life and work, was broadcast Feb. 22 on the “American Dissident Voices” series. The text, headed “Free Ernst Zundel,” can be downloaded from the National Alliance web site, where it can also be heard.

Pressing for War

In addition to our help with the Zundel case, we’ve continued our work in other areas.

At a special IHR meeting on February 15 in Costa Mesa, California, guest speaker Tom Sunic and I put the US government’s preparations for war against Iraq in historical perspective.

One important reason why Europeans oppose war against Iraq, explained the Croatian-born scholar and diplomat, is a loathing of war based on grim memories of the horrors and devastation of World War II. Another factor, Sunic added, is consideration of the sentiments of Europe’s large and growing Muslim population.

In my address, I stressed the deceitful character of the justifications being given for this war, including claims that Iraq is an imminent threat to the US, or that the Iraqi regime was involved in the 9/11 terror attacks in New York and Washington. I cited lies by previous US administrations to generate public support for war, a record of deceit that should encourage profound skepticism of the official claims now being offered to justify war.

For the United States to bomb and invade a country that has never attacked or even threatened the US, and in defiance of world opinion and international law, is both arrogant and dangerous. Reflecting our country’s perverse alliance with Israel, US policy in the Middle East ultimately serves only Jewish-Zionist interests, while generating hatred of America around the world.

I also highlighted the crucial Jewish-Zionist role in planning and pushing for war against Iraq, pointing out, for example, that Zionist policy makers, including such high-ranking Bush administration officials as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, had laid out their plans for war against Iraq years before Bush became president.

• Our IHR News and Comment service is proving ever more popular, with the number of subscribers growing steadily. This free e-mail service distributes selected news and commentary almost daily. (To subscribe, just write to news@ihr.org)

• Our leaflet, A Look at the ‘Powerful Jewish Lobby, continues to generate worldwide interest. Soon after it was issued last June, it was widely circulated through the Internet, and was reprinted in various newspapers in the US and abroad — for example, in the nationally distributed American weekly Christian News (Jan. 13).

The influential British daily The Guardian, devoted an entire article to the IHR essay (Jan. 15). In a piece headlined “The Ultimate Jewish Conspiracy Theory,” writer David Aaronovitch sought to refute it with arguments that struck even casual readers as feeble and irrelevant.

“For the past 40 years,” The Guardian article explained, “the common explanation for US partiality towards Israel has been the power of the Jewish lobby. It is an explanation that, broadly, has united leftwingers and rightwingers. Why has the United States been so supine in the face of Israeli intransigence, and so uncaring in its attitude towards the plight of the Palestinians? Above all, why has it behaved in this way, when a more balanced approach might have served its long-term interests far better? The Jewish lobby, that’s why.

“The lobby explanation has been outlined with great clarity by Mark Weber, who is director of the American Institute for Historical Review. In a long article, Weber brought together the comments and analyses of various Jewish academics, such as Benjamin Ginsberg of Johns Hopkins University, and writers such as Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab.”

• IHR articles, reviews and essays continue to be reprinted widely, with translations regularly appearing in French, German, Russian, Spanish and other languages.

• As usual, we routinely ship out great quantities of books, leaflets, tapes and other educational materials.

• One telling measure of the Institute’s impact is the unrelenting wrath we continue to provoke from Jewish-Zionist adversaries, including the “Anti-Defamation League,” and the B’nai B’rith International Center for Public Policy in Washington, DC.

A Time of Challenge for the IHR

During this critical era for America and the world, the Institute’s global reach and impact is as great as ever. But the bad news is that during a time when a strong IHR voice for peace, sanity and truth is more needed than ever, we’re straining to cope with a severe financial squeeze.

The Institute’s persistent money problems — the most serious consequence of which has probably been the nagging tardiness of our Journal of Historical Review — are due, above all, to the legal dispute with embezzler Willis Carto. Now more than nine years old, this bitter and financially draining battle has cost the Institute much more in time and money than it’s recovered. Although the IHR has consistently prevailed in the courts, Carto continues his campaign of smears and harassment lawsuits, including, most recently, a lawsuit he brought against us in Texas. Throughout this ordeal, we’ve made every human effort to resolve the dispute peacefully. We finally pressed the Carto side to sign formal agreements to end the fighting, but on each occasion he broke them.

To tackle these problems, we’ve launched several new projects in recent months, including promotional mailings to new mailing lists. A special IHR mailing focusing on the Middle East situation was recently delivered to more than 10,000 addresses across the US. Along with it we sent out a new IHR leaflet, “Liberating America from Israel,” a hard-hitting essay by former US Congressman Paul Findley.

A few months ago we hired a young man from Idaho with a degree in business administration to take on the responsibilities of Greg Raven, who has left after more than ten years with the IHR.

New Opportunities

During this time of war, official lies, bigotry, and new assaults against civil freedoms, the IHR’s voice of truth and sanity is more needed than ever. However great the danger, this is also a time of tremendous opportunity.

Something very profound is stirring around the world. Everywhere there is an encouraging new spirit of openness and growing skepticism of government and media propaganda. More people than ever see through Zionist lies about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and grasp the relationship between the seemingly intractable conflict in the Middle East, the US-Israel “special relationship,” and Jewish-Zionist power in the US. Israel and the Jewish-Zionist lobby are on the defensive as never before.

Our Institute’s survival and growth demands that we build on this global awakening.

We urgently need your help to surmount our current budget crisis and strengthen the IHR’s voice and global impact — by reaching many more people across America and around the world, by expanding our outreach on radio and television, by launching important new books, by hiring new staff members — and much more.

With your donation, you are helping bring victory in a crucial struggle that we can’t afford to lose.

Mark Weber

Director

P.S. Your tax-deductible donation to the IHR packs a real punch! Our impact around the world is vastly out of proportion to our small staff and modest budget. Please show your support with a donation of $30 or $100 or even $400 or $1000. We need your help!