ADL Lies and the Destruction of Liberty
by Col. William Flatt - January 2002
Ever since the Militia movement took its' first big steps in the mid-90's following the massacre at Waco, enemies of Liberty have sought to demonize and isolate patriots from the masses of Americans who haven't yet discovered that there is something wrong in America today. Americans are by nature very optimistic, preferring to ignore usurpations of power by the government, ignore the trends toward social decline, and ignore the subversion of our constitutional republic by groups who abuse our right to speak and publish. This abuse comes in the form of labeling all who stand for freedom, the Constitution, and liberty; as "anti-government", "right-wing extremists", "racist", "separatist", "intolerant", "bigot", and many other ugly words that are designed to scare people away from a good and positive message.
The idiocy of this labeling tactic becomes apparent when one examines how groups like the ADL and SPLC, declared in 1995 that the erstwhile commander of the Ohio Unorganized Militia was a white supremacist, without taking the time to even check out that J.J. Johnson was black, not white! Even in spite of this glaring inconsistency, opponents of the patriot movement continued to refer to him and other militia leaders as "white supremacists". Mr. Johnson subsequently appeared in rallies on the Capitol, before Congress, and on the Donahue TV show declaring that he is "tired of being referred to as a 'white supremacist'... are these people blind, or what??"
Some groups are particularly odious in their abuses, using freedom of speech to attack and destroy other rights, such as the Right to assemble, the Right to keep and bear arms, the Right to freely associate, and individual sovereignty, when exercised together becomes the foundation for militias and the larger patriot movement across America. These organizations, using 'civil rights' as a cloak for their subversion of natural or God-given Rights, create classes of 'thought crimes'; which under color of law are used to subvert the rule of law under the constitution.
The patriot movement at large is NOT a movement of racism, and neither is the Indiana Militia Corps. The Indiana Militia Corps stands against all forms of corruption and tyranny, and opposes all enemies of liberty, foreign and domestic. Our goals include "opening our ranks to all citizens who love Liberty without regard to religion, race, creed or sex..." Additionally, the Militia Corps manual also clearly advises members to regulate their personal behavior to the highest possible moral standards, as the image of the militia is directly affected by the actions of its' members. The manual states, "We are committed to a posture of defense and do not advocate the overthrow, targeting of, or subversion of any person(s) or government by force".
Also, the online message board guidelines from the Indiana Militia Corps website states; "Keep it clean, courteous, and professional. There will be NO tolerance for profanity/vulgarity, threats, racist or sexist language Violators will be BANNED... Anyone who signs onto the message board with an online profile featuring racist, neo-nazi, communist or other un-American or otherwise subversive affiliations will be automatically banned. The Indiana Militia Corps will not allow itself to be used as a platform for other agendas." So there you have it. It cannot be stated any clearer. The Indiana Militia is not racist, not 'anti-government', and we certainly are not extreme. We are an organization of, by, and for the Constitutions of the United States and of Indiana. This is the law of the land, so we are not breaking the law, but rather upholding it! Patriots are not revolutionaries trying to overthrow the government. Patriots are counter-revolutionaries trying to prevent the government from overthrowing the Constitution!
Could it be that the reason why the establishment press (which by its own admission is a socialist clique), groups like the ADL and SPLC, and other United Nations NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) all defame and disparage the militia movement because we are doing something they don't like? You bet your britches! For years now the militia movement has succeeded in educating and awakening Americans to the fact that personal possession and use of firearms acts as a check against the criminal element in our communities as well as a hedge against tyranny in government. In particular, the patriot movement has resurrected the American people's awareness that freedom sometimes requires the use of lawful force in order to be preserved, whether it be from a common thug on the street or a soldier who has been ordered to confiscate arms and ammunition (as it was in Lexington & Concord, on April 19th, 1776).
Yet, in spite of many constitutional militias' public and demonstrated commitment to freedom and Liberty for Americans of all races, gender, religion, and ethnic background, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have ignored the facts and worked diligently to disparage the rights of patriotic Americans. Yet, in a recent news page alert, the SPLC referred to us as "the largely non-racist Patriot world"... [http://www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?dirname=/whatsnew&pagename=index.html] an amazing admission!! So are we now to believe them, now that they talk out of both sides of their mouths??
In 1999 the Federal Bureau of Investigation produced its Megiddo report, a thinly disguised ADL boilerplate implicating a wide cross-section of Americans dedicated to Christianity, patriotism, and American national sovereignty, and mentioning them alongside racists, klansmen and neo-nazis. This report, and the ADL's shorter version entitled Y2Kparanoia, alleged that "extreme" Christians, patriots, militias, and others would suddenly start committing acts of terrorism at the stroke of midnight of the new millennium when the lights were to go out. Of course, in the lexicon of the rabid liberal (socialist), the word "extremist" refers to anyone who holds beliefs anywhere to the political 'right' of their beliefs. Well, nothing happened. Y2K didn't happen, and neither did Megiddo. Suddenly the FBI and the ADL were very quiet about their failed new year's prophecy, as if they never issued a proclamation, hoping that their failed prediction would disappear the same way as Jeane Dixon's astrology predictions do after every new year.
When you point a finger at someone, it is easy to forget that in doing so you usually have three other fingers on the same hand pointing back at yourself... try it sometime. The ADL, SPLC, and FBI forgot this simple analogy when they started calling patriots and militias "Conspiracy Theorists" and "extremists"... When patriots refer to a "New World Order", we are quoting HG Wells, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hitler, Mikhail Gorbachev, David Rockefeller, and many others IN THEIR OWN WORDS. That is not conspiracy theory, that's conspiracy fact. When the ADL, SPLC, and FBI talk about patriots you can be assured that it IS a "conspiracy theory"!!!
All of these reports have similar characteristics that "fingerprint" their pedigree. While these reports are quick to label patriots with pejorative labels, at no time do they actually come out and say, "This militia is racist", or "That militia leader is a racist"... They know that they are fabricating a lie, and that they have to be careful lest they be sued by a few or by many patriots So they avoid specifics and always hold the patriot movement side-by-side with real racists to create the impression that the two movements are somehow affiliated or even allied, which could not be any further from the truth!!
Most klansmen and neo-nazi's HATE the patriot movement... for this they seek to undermine the message of the patriot movement by adopting its' rhetoric and weaving core ideas into their racist ideology. They create organizations that mimic militias in their appearance but not in philosophy or constitutionality. Constitutional militias do not bar membership on the basis of race, nationality, etc. On the internet, these enemies of freedom use a "good-guy, bad-guy" technique: Hardcore sites dripping with racist venom which appeal to their most dedicated adherents, and soft-sell websites that mimic very closely the message of the patriot movement but direct readers to progressively more racist literature and ideology by way of links and user groups.
Since the ADL published a report on the growth of patriot websites and other media on the internet, there has been a surge of online activity among agents provocateurs who have attempted to infiltrate user groups, message boards, and email networks. Presumably this has been to establish and demonstrate that fictitious "link" between patriots and racists, but many online militia user groups, and other websites, have exercised aggressive editorial control to deny these pretenders a chance to wreak havoc. True to form, the ADL Internet report is titled "Combating Extremism in Cyberspace: The Legal Issues Affecting Internet Hate Speech" here we have the pejorative buzzwords in place even before we move past the title... "extremism" and "hate speech". It is also particularly interesting to note that the ADL smoothly crafts a dangerous concept, the idea of "hate speech", into a "thought crime". The implication is that anyone that they label as being "extremist", etc., and uses what they deem as "hate speech" must be really bad people!! The ADL report also speaks of the
"uninhibited atmosphere of free speech that thrives in cyberspace"
...as if it were a bad thing... do they wish to create an "inhibited environment" online? If so then it certainly could not be called free speech! This is evident later in the report, where the ADL castigates Internet service providers (ISP's) for upholding the spirit of the 1st Amendment in policy statements such as
"supports the free flow of information and ideas over the Internet" and "do not actively monitor or exercise editorial control over the content of any web site, electronic mail transmission, mailing list, news group or other material created or accessible over our services"
and other policy statements like
"will not censor any content of information passing through its network unless the information is deemed illegal".
The answer, in the eyes of the ADL, is to create software, HateFilter®, that can censor or filter out websites which they deem unacceptable. When an individual using a computer with the filter tries to view a blocked site, instead of seeing the website the user sees an ADL HateFilter screen, which allows the user to continue to a section of ADL's Web site where propaganda on the blocked website and its' sponsoring group awaits the user. Fortunately, few people have turned to the ADL to have their minds protected from politically incorrect web content!
Most disturbing among the ADL's and SPLC's efforts to censor the patriot community is their sponsorship of legislation designed to deprive patriotic Americans of their most cherished rights. They have teamed up with United Nations advocates in attempting to establish "international standards" for Internet content, which would cause nationalist websites everywhere - but especially patriot sites in the USA - to be shut down or heavily censored to meet the demands of foreign interests.
Another attack on Freedom comes in the form of model legislation to deprive Americans of their right to exercise multiple freedoms simultaneously. The SPLC has correctly identified that one of the greatest strengths of the American Militia is the exercise of the Right to assemble, the Right to bear Arms, Freedom of association, and many other God-given Rights. To deny us our rights, the ADL and SPLC sponsored an anti-militia statute that basically read as follows;
Model Anti-Militia Statute
A-A-A. Unauthorized Military Organizations
A. Any two or more persons who associate as a military organization or demonstrate with arms in public without the governor's authority shall be guilty of a Class ____ misdemeanor.
B. A military organization is any unit with arms, command structure, training and discipline designed to function as a combat or combat support unit.
C. This section does not apply to any school or college where military training and instruction is given under the provisions of state or federal laws.
Armed Civilian Groups. No organization, society, club, post, order, league or other combination of persons, or civil group, or any member thereof, are authorized to assume any semblance of military organization or character by bearing or possessing rifles, pistols, sabres, clubs, or military weapons of any kind, or wearing a military uniform of any kind. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section or taking part in such military organization shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if a natural person, or guilty of a felony, if any other person, and any rifles, pistols, sabres, clubs or other military weapons used in violation hereof shall be forfeited. This section shall not apply to regularly constituted military units under state or federal laws, and nothing in this section shall be construed as forbidding the possession and use of rifles for color guards or firing squad purposes, [also excludes wearing of uniforms by some veteran groups and ritualistic use of sabres or rifles by fraternal groups]"
This flies in the face of the Constitution and the writings of the Founding fathers, which had these words to say about civilians engaged in paramilitary training and assemblies for the purpose of resisting illegitimate governmental power and actions:
The Second Amendment only reiterates our inalienable right to self defense by keeping and bearing arms. This would include defending yourself against all those who would do you bodily harm, including a tyrannical government or any of the government agencies. ~~John Penn~~
"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms . . . " Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53 (1788).
"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." George Mason, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788).
"The said Constitution be never construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams, during Massachusetts's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788).
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined." Patrick Henry, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788)
"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." --James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46
"Suppose that we let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal: still it would not be going too far to say that the State governments with the people at their side would be able to repel the danger...half a million citizens with arms in their hands" --James Madison, The Federalist Papers
"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crime."--Cesare Beccaria, quoted by Thomas Jefferson
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States....Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America" -- Gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789.
"The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country..."--James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789.
"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms." --Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Framer (1788) at p. 169
"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."--Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at p. 750, August 17, 1789.
"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people" --Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use them." --Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights, Walter Bennett, ed., Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican, at 21,22,124 (Univ. of Alabama Press,1975.
What the Courts Have Said About the Right to Keep and Bear Arms:
"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." [Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)]
"For, in principle, there is no difference between a law prohibiting the wearing of concealed arms, and a law forbidding the wearing such as are exposed; and if the former be unconstitutional, the latter must be so likewise. But it should not be forgotten, that it is not only a part of the right that is secured by the constitution; it is the right entire and complete, as it existed at the adoption of the constitution; and if any portion of that right be impaired, immaterial how small the part may be, and immaterial the order of time at which it be done, it is equally forbidden by the constitution." [Bliss vs. Commonwealth, 12 Ky. (2 Litt.) 90, at 92, and 93, 13 Am. Dec. 251 (1822)
" `The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State. Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right." [Nunn vs. State, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)]
"The provision in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be made subject to the will of the sheriff." [People vs. Zerillo, 219 Mich. 635, 189 N.W. 927, at 928 (1922)]
"The maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most essential one to every free people and should not be whittled down by technical constructions." [State vs. Kerner, 181 N.C. 574, 107 S.E. 222, at 224 (1921)]
"The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power." [Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)]
On the Constitution and the Bill of Rights:
"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p. 322
"The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals.... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." --Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.
"If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people." --James Madison
" 'Necessity' is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."--William Pitt
"Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." St. George Tucker, in his edition of 'Blackstone's Commentaries,' 1:300 (1803).
It is time that conscientious Americans stand up to the destruction of Liberty by groups that have for too long hidden their subversive agendas behind a facade of civil rights advocacy. Natural, God-given Rights are inalienable and enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights; they need no clarification or additional enumeration for they are self-explanatory. Civil rights are created and dispensed by bureaucracies to create the illusion of democracy, equality, and fairness; yet are revocable because of their manmade nature and imperfect construction. In a nation where inalienable rights are upheld and enforced, there is no need for man-made civil "rights". The greatest Right of all, the Right to Choose, is one that needs to be guarded jealously from people and special-interest groups that unjustly presume that they've the authority to choose for others who disagree with that philosophy. Those who would restrict the most basic of Rights for some are most likely to end up destroying the foundation of Rights for all!
