[Peace-discuss] Dean and Dems poison the wells

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The supposed opposition party continues to lie about US
policy and the position of Israel in the "Greater Middle
East." After all, it's their policy, too. So House Minority
Leader Pelosi and Sen. Clinton give rabidly pro-Israel
speeches at the AIPAC meeting (which should be read), and the
fake-liberal Dean combines here some speculations on Israel's
role in 9/11 with Ray McGovern's sober account of US Mideast
policy, and condemns them both as "anti-Semitism." With
enemies like this, the Bush administration doesn't need
friends. --CGE] 

   washingtonpost.com
   Dean Condemns 'Anti-Semitic Literature'
   The Associated Press
   Friday, June 17, 2005; 10:02 PM

WASHINGTON -- A handful of people at Democratic National
Headquarters distributed material critical of Israel during a
public forum questioning the Bush administration's Iraq
policy, drawing an angry response and charges of anti-Semitism
from party chairman Howard Dean on Friday.

"We disavow the anti-Semitic literature, and the Democratic
National Committee stands in absolute disagreement with and
condemns the allegations," Dean said in a statement posted on
the DNC Web site.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the
House Judiciary Committee, organized the forum on Thursday at
the Capitol to publicize and discuss the so-called Downing
Street memo. That document suggests that the Bush
administration believed that war with Iraq was inevitable and
that the administration was determined to use intelligence
about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The Sunday Times of London has reported that the prewar
document, which recounts a meeting of Prime Minister Tony
Blair's national security team, was leaked from inside the
British government. The White House has rejected the memo's
assertions.

Conyers' event occurred in a small Capitol meeting room, and
an overflow crowd watched witnesses on television in a
conference room at DNC headquarters. According to Dean, some
material distributed within the DNC conference room implied
that Israel was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

One witness, former intelligence analyst Ray McGovern, told
Conyers and other House Democrats that the war was part of an
effort to allow the United States and Israel to "dominate that
part of the world," a statement Dean also condemned.

"As for any inferences that the United States went to war so
Israel could 'dominate' the Middle East or that Israel was in
any way behind the horrific September 11th attacks on America,
let me say unequivocally that such statements are nothing but
vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric," Dean said.

"The inferences are destructive and counterproductive, and
have taken away from the true purpose of the Judiciary
Committee members' meeting," he said. "The entire Democratic
Party remains committed to fighting against such bigotry."

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