THE NAZIFICATION OF OUR “LIBERAL” ELITES: Old State Department Warhorse William Polk Slams NeoCons, Cites Nazi Apologist

AmericanFreePress.net is one of the less inhibited Jew-bashing sites on the Internet, serving up a regular fare of Holocaust revisionism, neo-Nazi apologetics, denunciations of Zionist media domination, as well as exposés of Mossad complicity in virtually every calamity to strike these United States from the JFK assassination to the 9-11 attacks. Long appealing to certain fringe elements on the Web, AmericanFreePress.net now appears to be reaching an enthusiastic readership among our nation’s “liberal” foreign policy elites. (hat tip, Alex Joffe)

One such reader, it appears, is historian and Middle Eastern studies expert William R. Polk, formerly of Harvard University and the University of Chicago. Polk served the U.S. State Department under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and has been deeply involved with the United Nations. As President of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, he helped launch the European Union.

Polk outed himself as a peruser of the American Free Press when he cited the controversial publication in an August 29 broadside slamming Campus Watch, an organization dedicated to monitoring Middle Eastern Studies departments for bias and error.

In his piece, which appears on the Web site of the History News Network, Professor Polk predictably likens the activities of Campus Watch to McCarthyism, Stalinism, Fascism and Nazism. But he goes further. In condemning the “Neoconservative” agenda which Campus Watch allegedly serves, Polk strikes an unexpected trope when he cites by name American Free Press editor Michael Collins Piper. Polk writes:

“Senator Rick Santorum has written a bill which only George Orwell could have imagined, entitled `Ideological Diversity’ to cut federal funding from colleges and universities that permit teachers and students from criticizing Israeli policies. (Michael C. Piper, www.americanfreepress.net April 21, 2003).”

(hat tip, Alex Joffe)

Note the citation. Polk’s source for this information is none other than American Free Press editor Michael Collins Piper. Needless to say, Polk’s description of the Santorum proposal is inaccurate to the point of hysteria.

Actually, Senator Santorum merely sought to expand the protections offered under Title IX of the Higher Education Act to include not only victims of sex discrimination but also those persecuted for their “ideological diversity” – thus giving conservative students and faculty a legal foothold from which to fight harassment by radical campus administrators.

Santorum got the idea from our own David Horowitz, whose Academic Bill of Rights serves a similar purpose.

Evidently, Polk did not feel the need to do much homework on Santorum’s proposal. Why bother? He got all the facts he needed from the American Free Press.

It is hard to imagine that a public intellectual of Polk’s stature would have bestowed such a high level of trust on the American Free Press without first having spent many long, satisfying hours engrossed in its pages.

Thanks to Campus Watch director Alexander H. Joffe for bringing our attention to Polk’s AFP citation in a FrontPage article, “Concerning Academic Ignorance.” To his credit, Dr. Joffe interpreted Polk’s gaffe far more charitably than did we.

by Richard Poe
September 19, 2005 05:28 PM ET

Cross-posted from MoonbatCentral.com 09.19.05