Opinion Editorials, April 2010

Republic Broadcasting Network and Fringe-Right Extremism

By Mark E. Dankof

As a Lutheran pastor and ex-host of "Mark Dankof's America" on the Republic Broadcasting Network, I wish to respond to your recent articles by Patrik Jonsson, entitled "Guardians of the free Republics Tied to Texas Radio Station," and "Guardians of the free Republics:  Could Threats Spark Violence?"
 
It is clear that Sam Kennedy of the "Take No Prisoners"  show on the Republic Broadcasting Network, was clearly irresponsible in his reported actions taken in conjunction with the Guardians organization, apparently inextricably linked to the "sovereign citizens" ideology.  Much like its first cousin, the so-called Christian Identity movement, such groupings simply serve to discredit a larger American populist movement that has many legitimate grievances, and an equal number of intellectually respectable adherents.
 
During my tenure with the Republic Broadcasting Network, a number of people in this latter category were guests on my show.  These people include Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review; Dr. Ron Larsen of Liberty Calling in Austin, whose possession of a Ph. D. in physics from Cornell University made him uniquely qualified to address issues related to the government's official version of the events surrounding September 11, 2001; Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, assistant secretary to the Treasury under President Reagan; Dr. Paul Sheldon Foote of Cal State Fullerton University, an expert on the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (Mek/MKO); and Dr. David Duke, presently teaching history in the Ukraine.  Allowing these individuals to speak directly to my audience for themselves, and to be unfiltered by the lenses of American corporate media's interpretation of their public personas and positions, was an invaluable exercise I do not apologize for.
 
I had a much larger grouping of guests as well, including the ex-CIA station chief in Turkey, Philip Giraldi, now a Middle East consultant for Pat Buchanan's The American Conservative; Dr. Ilan Pappe, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine; Dilip Hiro, author of The Iranian Labyrinth and The Essential Middle East, and Middle East consultant for the BBC and The Economist; world renowed military historian Barrett Tillman, author of LeMay for the Palgrave Great Generals Series; and Ms. Jennifer Lowenstein, Middle East peace activist with academic connections at both the University of Wisconsin and Oxford University in England.  One presumes Mr. Giraldi may agree with some of my views; it is a safe bet that these other guests sharply deviate from my ideas in many areas of public policy.  Yet they have all been on my broadcast, much to the edification of my listeners.
 
There is one other item of note that I hope you will not edit from my letter to your fine publication:  the clear benefit derived by the Southern Poverty Law Center and its sister organization, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith (ADL), from the demonstrated irresponsibility of the Republic Broadcasting Network in providing an assist to Mr. Kennedy and the loon mentality of the "sovereign citizens" movement, in distributing the recent letter to American governors around the country, including Governor Rick Perry here in Texas.  This letter is a moral, political, and intellectual embarrassment to the respectable American populist and anti-neo-conservative Right, and should be repudiated unequivocally and without ambiguity.
 
How does this faux pas benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith?  In one obvious way--it assists these far-left organizations, working in conjunction with misguided elements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security, in demonizing law-abiding and faithful Americans who in fact, are tired of the disproportionate influence of the Israel lobby in formulating our nation's foreign policy and unduly influencing corporate news media in the United States; who see the over-extended character of the American military posture abroad, including our present quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a long-term threat to both true American national security interests, and economic stability at home; who do not support the preemptive utilization of American and Israeli military force against Iran; who view the draconian expansion of federal budgets, debt, and foreign borrowing as a sword pointed at the throat of our Republic; who have watched globalist trade treaties facilitate the exportation of the previously formidable American manufacturing economic sector overseas; who understand with increasing alarm, the dangerous implications of warrantless NSA spying and other post 9-11 programs of federal intelligence and surveillance operations left unchecked by the Constitution, the Congress, and the FISA court; and who want the worse excesses of the Federal Reserve Board and the central banking system eliminated, and its perpetrators held accountable.
 
John Stadtmiller of the Republic Broadcasting Network, and Sam Kennedy of the "Take No Prisoners" radio show, have handed these enemies of our movement, a serious propaganda coup in the national public embarrassment generated by the events of recent days.  Such situations that have occurred from time to time at that Network contributed to my own decision to vacate the premises, along with colleagues Mark Glenn and Phil Tourney of The Liberty Hour, who like me can only breathe a sigh of relief at the wisdom of our voluntary disaffiliation for other confines.
  
 
Rev. Mark E. Dankof
San Antonio, Texas