This is what happens to a memorial site when you let political activists design and build it.

Across the street from the memorial in Phoenix sits a place for political discussions, Arizona’s state capitol building, which is where they should have left them.

We objected to the now defunct International Freedom Center being on Ground Zero and becoming the gateway to the 9/11 memorial because it was going to be a $300 million center for political activism.

Its founder and executive director, Tom Bernstein, was also the president of Human Rights First. Along with the ACLU, that organization had:

…filed a lawsuit…against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was Human Rights First that filed an amicus brief on behalf of alleged “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the Justice Department believes is an al Qaeda recruit. It was Human Rights First that has called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the alleged torture of detainees, complete with budget authority, subpoena power and the ability to demand that witnesses testify under oath.

The IFC’s advisors included:

Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the worldwide “Stop Torture Now” campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld’s refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is “irresponsible and dishonorable.”

Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11.

Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, “I’m not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House.” This is the same man who participated in a “teach-in” at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, “The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military,” and called for “a million Mogadishus.” The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner’s statement warning that future discussions should not be “overwhelmed” by the IFC’s location at the World Trade Center site itself.

It had formulated a program of political discussions:

Its cultural and educational programs will make the Center a place of lively and important dialogue – a new and permanent “Public Square” on hallowed ground — where matters of public concern will be placed in new light. Cultural and educational programming will include university-sponsored seminars and lecture series, civic conferences and workshops, films and film series, symposia relating to historical and contemporary freedom issues, and a wide range of Lower Manhattan local community events.
…
The character of a university allows for this form of “sacred space.” John Sexton, the president of New York University, describes the role of the great universities as “modern sanctuaries…sustaining and enhancing scholarship, creativity, and learning.” Universities, Sexton believes, have a special “commitment to free, unbridled, and ideologically unconstrained discourse in which claims of knowledge are examined, confirmed, deepened or replaced.” This commitment parallels the Center’s own commitment to a full and open exchange of ideas. President Sexton helped conceive the new Consortium.

A global network of human rights museums urged “the International Freedom Center to downplay America in its exhibits and programs at Ground Zero”:

“Don’t feature America first,” the IFC has been advised by the consortium of 14 “museums of conscience“ that quietly has been consulting with the Freedom Center for the past two years over plans for the hallowed site. “Think internationally, where America is one of the many nations of the world.”

Wealthy activists were attempting a 9/11 memorial land-grab and would have used Ground Zero to further their political agendas.

Instead of honoring the 9/11 dead at the memorial in Phoenix, they let political activists create a million dollar insult to them.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 12:01 am and is filed under Take Back the Memorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.