Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service’s Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.
This is just to assure readers of the site that I am still alive (having been first on a family vacation and then down with the flu), although I learned this week that I am once again persona non grata (PNG) at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). The first time I was declared unwelcome there resulted from my appearance on BBC’s weekly public-affairs “Panorama†television program, “The War Party,†that aired in May 2003 and covered the neo-conservatives’ role in promoting the invasion of Iraq. (AEI’s Joshua Muravchik later assailed the program in an article in the September 2003 Commentary, “The Neoconservative Cabal,†in which, among other things, he noted, curiously, that “[Lobe] look(ed) as Jewish as his name sounds.†I am indeed Jewish.) I have since attended several AEI events without incident, but last week, when my colleague, Eli Clifton, was registering for the “No Middle Way: Two Reports on Iraq†event September 6, he was taken aside by AEI’s communications director and told that AEI knew that he worked with me and that, while he was welcome to attend the forum that day, I was still PNG. In a subsequent phone call with Eli, she re-affirmed that I was unwelcome at Washington’s most prominent and influential neo-conservative think tank because I had allegedly made false accusations about and mounted ad hominem attacks against its scholars. Although requested, no specifics were forthcoming, and I remain in the dark about what she — or those who informed her — have in mind.
Of course, my writings about AEI and its associates are on the record, and readers can reach their own conclusions as to the merits of its allegations and the appropriateness of its remedy. But it is remarkable that an institution that prides itself on promoting freedom around the world and on defending “open debate†and “the competition of ideas,†as its mission statement asserts, would seek to restrict access to its policy forums in this way.
Eli, incidentally, is leaving the Washington bureau for a master’s program in international relations at Elliott Abrams’ alma mater, the London School of Economics, as is another valued colleague, Ellen Massey. (Ah, youth!) I have no doubt they will perform brilliantly in their studies and perhaps find some time to continue to contribute to IPS as well.
I hope to catch up quickly on recent events in the coming days and resume posting more frequently next week.
These people play for keeps and their tactics are emulated by even by their most obscure devotees. Run a comment on a ReichsChurch blog like The American Papist or Against The Grain criticising the war supporting apologetics of a Richard Neuhaus or a Michael Novak and watch the daggers come out. In every respect the responses are political and calculated; such is the method of neo-conservatism whereever its contaminating influences are felt.
John Lowell
Freedom isn't free, and apparently, it's not for everyone.
It's amazing that these jacka—- have so much influence given how wrong they are about the wars they want to wage…
Sounds like they have borrowed a page from an equally rabid group, FreeRepublic, the most heavily censored propaganda site on the internet.
I’d wear being banned from that place as a badge of honor, however inconvenient it may be for your career. Hopefully they will give events in the future in which no one attends, like the old anti war poster.
I do love the part “open debate” and the part “the competition of ideas” coupled with your PNG status. A rift in your country is born. People ceased to understand each other. Frightening.
In my country, inability to speak to each other is on the rise.
(AEI’s Joshua Muravchik later assailed the program in an article in the September 2003 Commentary, “The Neoconservative Cabal,†in which, among other things, he noted, curiously, that “[Lobe] look(ed) as Jewish as his name sounds.â€
WHAT AN UTTERLY CONTEMPTIBLE COMMENT. I SUPPOSE THAT HE WOULD HAVE YOU GET YOUR NOSE ‘BOBBED’ AND CHANGE YOUR NAME LIKE A GOOD JEWISH REPUBLICAN.
DO I HEAR THE “PLAINTIFF WAIL” OF A FERAL ANIMAL SOMEWHERE OFF IN THE DISTANCE?
Thank you Jim for your excellent reporting. I wish you had a much larger audience.