David Irving and the ADL
by Jamie McCarthy
The Holocaust-denier David Irving slings around the ADL like a cook
peppering a stew. When he warns of the
Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai Brith
being involved with someone, or being behind something, he is generally
not to be taken too seriously.
Boldface emphasis has been added to the quotes below.
1. SurfWatch
http://www.fpp.co.uk/docs/Surfwatch/Review.html
Mr. Irving writes:
Surfwatch, going hand-in-glove with the New-York based ADL,
is producing software to enable schools to block access for curious
minds to "bad sites". PEOPLE ARE always fascinated by any evidence of
the ADL's so far unsuccessful search for objectivity.
No; that would be Cyber Patrol, a totally unrelated product from a
competing company. As I commented to Mr. Irving - a comment which he
put up on his
webpage
apparently without reading carefully:
SurfWatch might want to clarify for Mr. Irving that their company in
fact has nothing to do with the ADL. Cyber Patrol, not SurfWatch, has
the ill-conceived filter that directs surfers to the ADL website.
SurfWatch later did confirm for me in email that they have no
relationship with the ADL.
A personal note: as an online free-speech activist, I oppose the use
of censorware in the public sector and on adults generally. I work with
a group called
The Censorware Project
to educate on the insidious nature of these products. (Mr. Irving
quotes
me without realizing it, as I was one of the authors for our report
"Blacklisted
by Cyber Patrol: From Ada to Yoyo.")
2. The Nizkor Project
http://www.fpp.co.uk/IrvingIndex.html
Mr. Irving writes
It is here again fair to draw the attention of researchers to the
voluminous "Nizkor" Website created in Canada by Webmaster Ken
McVay, and substantially funded by the New York based
Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Nizkor Webmaster Kenneth McVay denies receiving funding from
the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai Brith, which has
headquarters in New York and Washington; Nizkor maintains a base
address at No. 462, 1150 North Terminal Avenue, Nanaimo, British
Columbia, on the Pacific coast of Canada. The funding details on the
actual site make plain that it is in fact partially funded by the
ADL.
Speaking as a former Director of Operations for
The Nizkor Project,
it is not funded by the ADL: "substantially," "partially," or "in
fact."
What is "plain" on Nizkor's
funding page
is that donations given to the Project can be sent
care of a group called B'nai Brith Canada:
Please make your donations payable to "The League for Human Rights
of B'nai Brith Canada," and add the words "Nizkor Trust Fund"...
Mr. Irving illustrates how diligently he researches. In the first
place, accepting private donations earmarked for a particular cause in
no way constitutes "funding" that cause. Also, apart from having the
same two words in their names,
B'nai Brith Canada
has nothing to do with the
Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai Brith.
(Presumably Mr. Irving believes the smaller Canadian organization to be
some sort of local chapter of the larger American group: no, the former
was founded in 1875, and the latter in 1913.)
(The quote above was removed from Mr. Irving's webpage on
May 13, 1999, after being posted for more than a year. The
claim is still made elsewhere on his site; e.g. references to
"the ADL-funded Nizkor Website,"
"the ADL-controlled Nizkor Project Website.")
3. The Holocaust History Project
http://www.fpp.co.uk/ActionReport/AR14/RadDi2.html
The Holocaust History Project is the organization which has put
together the website you are now reading. At a talk he gave in 1998,
Mr. Irving describes how:
...one tall, doleful man who identifies himself as a Jew takes over
the floor microphone and tries to berate me using a handbill issued
by an ADL-front organisation.
The words "handbill issued by an ADL-front organisation" are linked to
Mr. Irving's
reprint
of our pamphlet
Who is David Irving?.
I am the sole author of that pamphlet; it is identified on the webpage
as being issued by our group, The Holocaust History Project.
Not only is The Holocaust History Project not a "front" for the ADL,
but we have no relationship with them whatsoever. To my knowledge, our
Project has had no contact with the ADL until I emailed them
to please fact-check this very webpage. (And the fact that I did not
even receive the courtesy of a reply should indicate how closely we are
working together!)
There are many cases where Irving jumps to conclusions about this
one organization
("I suspect
the hand of the ADL" etc.)
but these three are examples which I have personal knowledge of, and
know to be utterly without merit. It is hoped that when the reader of
Mr. Irving's website encounters this sort of paranoid accusation, his
pepper will be taken with a grain of salt.
back to information on "Who is
David Irving?"...
|