Noam Chomsky

William S. Lear rael at zopyra.com
Sun Oct 25 06:36:32 PST 1998


On Sat, October 24, 1998 at 20:29:59 (EDT) Apsken at aol.com writes:
>Since Louis has posted my private communication, written casually rather than
>with scholarly care, I owe it to Noam Chomsky's admirers on this list to
>provide documentation for what I wrote about him.

Unfortunately, your "documentation" is a flat lie. You said that Chomsky provided "political and legal advice to his defense", and that he "came to [the] defense" of Nazi Holocaust deniers in Mississippi. These turn out to be: 1) Faurisson's account of Chomsky's support, and 2) a vague unsubstantiated quote from the ACLU regarding the KKK.

You state that Faurisson "published a letter from Chomsky", but you then tell us that he merely quotes this letter, saying, in short, Faurisson had been treated unfairly --- hardly political or legal support.


>It was with some dismay that we learned of Noam Chomsky's defense of Robert
>Faurisson in France. ...

When I learned of this, I was happy that Chomsky was following rather bland principle. Either Chomsky supports Faurisson's "political" views or he does not. To assume that he does is the height of idiocy (he's a closet Nazi or holocaust denier!) To assume that Chomsky made a "mistake" in understanding Faurisson's position is equally absurd. Chomsky did admit to a mistake, pointed out by Hitchens, in trying to have his "avis" (it was not a "preface") removed from Faurisson's book at the last minute.


> Under fire from the left, Chomsky claimed that his essay
>defending the rights of Holocaust deniers had been published without his
>permission, and that his sole involvement was in defense of free speech.

This is quite true, notwithstanding any of the unsubstantiated slanders you have published.


>The shocker was this passage: "Noam Chomsky, the famous professor (of Jewish
>origin) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is aware of the research
>work I do on what Revisionist Historians term 'the gas chamber and genocide
>hoax.' He informed me that Gitta Sereny had mentioned my name in the above
>article, and stated that I had been referred to 'in an extraordinarily unfair
>way.' "

So, where is Chomsky's "letter" you claimed was "published" by Faurisson? You cite five words from Faurisson quoting Chomsky and you equate that with "political and legal advice"? Where is the legal advice? Is he addressing Faurisson's defense?


>Unfortunately I do not at present have access to my letter and Chomsky's
>reply, so I cannot provide the text of our exchange.

How convenient. However, those interested might visit http://www.worldmedia.com/archive/ and enter the word "Faurisson", which will produce the "avis" in question.

We have better things to do on this list than listen to the ravings of zealots who are bent on slandering a decent man.

Bill



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