[RE fwd's]:
"It is my pleasure to announce that Congress has decided to investigate the charges of political bias that have been leveled against Title VI programs by critics like Martin Kramer, Daniel Pipes, and myself. This Thursday, June 19, at 1:00 P.M. in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Select Education will hold a hearing entitled, "International Programs in Higher Education and Questions of Bias.".......
Then Pugliese responds with `` Chapter Three of Ivory Towers on Sand''
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Pugliese, I have to ask why you posted Martin Kramer as an answer to this note on a US congressional investigation of middle eastern studies departments? Kramer is part of a whole rat nest of asshole neocon apologists for Israel.
This whole crew (Kramer, Pipes, Harris, et al) are part of a neocon propaganda campaign to discredit liberal academic studies and opinion on the middle east coming from Said, Gerges, Beinin, Bacharach, Khalidi, Esposito.
If I was an investigative reporter, I would start looking into these neocon experts' funding sources. I would expect to find some Israeli government agency front contributer to US based foundations as a money laundering system. The point would be to funnel funds into the US for the promotion of pro-Israeli policies in the US. I would also expect, if I could trace the money far enough through the maze, that the Israeli ministry responsible actually just diverted some US State Department funding into the project. I would expect to find this kind of funding cycle of circles because it fits my sense of humor: the US State Dept funded Israel to fund the US State Dept to support funding for Israel to support the US State Department policies to support...
In any event I wouldn't be surprised to discover this whole crew of nasty shits like Kramer was the primary source of the hew and cry that started up this congressional investigation. In other words this ring of neocon stink-tank shits drummed up a `problem' with academic liberals doing middle eastern studies, and then lobbied Congress to investigate the `problem'. The only problem of course was these academic liberals disagreed with the US and Israeli rightwing bullshit.
Kramer essentially called for such a probe in one of the articles I just read (Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2002, vl9n3, `Arabic Panic,' Kramer):
``It's difficult to see how this new investment in Middle Eastern studies could produce a return that serves the national interest. Given what goes on in some Middle East centers, perhaps the government should pay them, like farmers, not to produce anything...''
This is posted on something called the Middle Eastern Forum, Promoting American Interest (http://www.meforum.org/article/208/). Nice format in red, white and blue, typical middle eastern color scheme. Later in the above article he quotes the WSJ as a reminder of what goes on in Berkeley's middle eastern studies as an example that such departments are not the solution, but the problem:
``Who needs Arabic? Berkeley's administration, from the chancellor down, squirme in May when The Wall Street Journal published the description of an upcoming English department course entitled `The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance.' 13 Deconstruct this:
`The brutal Israeli military occupation of Palestine, an occupation that has been ongoing since 1948 [sic], has systematically displaced, killed, and maimed millions of Palestinian people. And yet, from under the brutal weight of the occupation, Palestinians have produced their own culture and poetry of resistance. This class will examine the history of the Palestinian resistance and the way that it is narrated by Palestinians in order to produce an understanding of the intifada and to develop a coherent political analysis of the situation. This class takes as its starting point the right of Palestinians to fight for their own self-determination. Conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections.'
These last two sentences set off a firestorm, since they so obviously contradicted every norm of intellectual exchange. They also violated the university's own Faculty Code of Conduct. Out they went, the very next day. If the criticism doesn't die down, it's possible that the rest of the description will be cleaned up. But that won't be enough. This match of subject and instructor still raises serious questions about Berkeley's standards.''
Of course the `storm' was set off by none other than the Middle Eastern Forum's own Campus Watch group---a group specifically devoted to generating such storms and problems. This is probably where you could find David Horowitz lurking in the closet.
I dimly remember the above WSJ quote as part of a thread on LBO, probably called `Deconstruct This,' from last year.
So, the neocons are hardly fading now that Iraq is conquered and yet another bogus peace plan has gone down in a hail of Israeli helicopter rocket attacks and assassinations followed by Palestinian suicide bombers. The neocons are just busy stirring up shit on the domestic front---like promoting a congressional investigation of middle eastern academics in order to intimidate them into silence.
Chuck Grimes