By Barbara Aho
Upon passage of HR 2431 in the House of Representatives in May of 1998, the bill was introduced to the Senate as S772 by Senator Arlen Specter (a Mason). There it was stalled in committee until the Republican leadership led by (Mason) Trent Lott maneuvered a compromise version of the bill through (33º Mason) Jesse Helms' Foreign Services Committee.
On October 9, the U.S. Senate passed the International Religious Freedom Act (S-1868) sponsored by Senators Don Nickles, Joseph Lieberman and others by a vote of 98-0. S-1868 was referred immediately back to the House of Representatives where it was passed into law the next day.
Provisions of The International Religious Freedom Act are provided by the Library of Congress.
An organization which has vehemently opposed this legislation from its inception is We Hold These Truths directed by Charles E. Carlson. The WHTT web site provides background and other information about the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act:
To his credit, C. E. Carlson has exposed many of the Evangelical leaders who supported and promoted HR2431/S776. However, he claims to know nothing of the Council for National Policy to which most of them belong. The CNP is the secret alliance of Christian ministries and elite globalists where plans are laid to mobilize the Christian Right, elect candidates and advance legislation which will establish a Christian government in the United States.
If you rely on WHTT for information, please know that C. E. Carlson is a former member of the John Birch Society and current friend of the Welch Foundation, named in honor of the founder of JBS, Robert Welch. Although Mr. Carlson served on the council of JBS, he has stated that he has no present affiliation with the organization.
We wonder how Mr. Carlson could be unaware of the Council for National Policy, considering that the John Birch Society was instrumental in founding this now 450+ member organization of high-profile national and religious power brokers. Nelson Bunker Hunt, who provided the start up money for the CNP, was also a JBS national council member.
"The Birch influence on the political goals of the CNP is significant. The JBS was with CNP from the beginning. Nelson Bunker Hunt, mentioned earlier as a prime mover in CNP's founding was on the Birch Society's national council. By 1984, John Birch Society Chairman A. Clifford Baker and Executive Council Member William Cies were CNP members. Other JBS leaders also joined the Council. Five board members of Western Goals, essentially a JBS intelligence-gathering operation (and later used to funnel aid to the Contras), joined the CNP as well." 1.
John Saloma also mentions Bunker Hunt's JBS membership:
"Hunt, whose Birch Society background is documented by Conway and Siegelman in Holy Terror, also made a contribution of $1 million to the Moral Majority in 1981, according to Perry Dean Young." 2.
The JBS is famous for its promotion of anti-Communist literature and at least one former John Birch leader, Robert Morris, served on the steering committee of Liberty Lobby, a faction of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The following statement by a close advisor to Robert Welch reveals a relationship between the John Birch version of anti-Communism and fascism.
Scenes from the Postwar Reemergence of the Nazi Party
"Dr. J.B. MATTHEWS, [House Un-American Activities Committee's] second 'Chief Investigator,' declared in his autobiography: 'America's answer to Communism will be fascism, or something so closely akin to it that the difference will not greatly matter.' His autobiography was published by a veteran anti-Semite, John Cecil. His writings were reprinted by the 'Contra-Komintern,' the official organ of the Nazi Foreign Office. At present, he is a close advisor of Robert Welch of the John Birch Society."
Not unlike JBS, "We Hold These Truths" ascribes the ultimate responsibility for the unhappy state of U.S. affairs to the anti-Christian, one-world government liberals, Communists and the UN. The most recent WHTT newsletter (10/11/98) states:
"We hold These Truths will now face the task of unmasking who controls that power structure and what is behind the totally phony, world government oriented, anti-Christian drive to protect Christians from persecution...
"We have faced and at times temporarily stymied one of the most powerful forces for evil on earth. Now we must expose those persons and factions behind that evil force and learn how it has come to control both our Congress and many of our influential celebrity Christian leaders. Do this we must, for otherwise there is nothing in our children's future but a Bolshevik style, world state government."
The WHTT Pledge to expose this Power Elite is found in Who We Are:
"We choose not to ignore the existence of a Power Elite which has wrest control over our government." Therefore....
"We pledge to oppose, expose and repudiate the aims and practices of the Power Elite who dominate America’s foreign and monitory policies."
"We freely pledge our time and resources as guided by our own conscience. We acknowledge that freedom is not free, and that success in the face of an established, organized foe is in God’s hands. Therefore, we set as our standard the Lord Jesus Christ, as did our Forefathers. It is our prayer that we would not shrink from the example given by the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. "
Much conservative rhetoric incorrectly links Christianity to the Founding Fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence. This misrepresentation serves to deflect suspicion and criticism of Christian leaders who have been collaborating behind the scenes with characters of the most un-Christian sort. Mr. Carlson has received information about the Council for National Policy and its unsavory connections. However, despite WHTT’s commitment to expose the Power Elite, Mr. Carlson has demonstrated a reluctance to acknowledge the existence of the Council for National Policy --- or to investigate it (having at least one close contact who is a CNP member --- Herb Titus, who was a high level attorney for the ACLU before Pat Robertson, also CNP, hired him as Dean of the Law and Public Policy at Regent University).
Various volumes of Who's Who in America and other sources document that many founders of the John Birch Society were also high-ranking Freemasons, members of the CFR and of other subversive organizations. In a JBS reprint of John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy (a 1789 expose of the Illuminati), the publishers introduction disallows present connections between the Illuminati and American Freemasonry - castigating the villainous Illuminati but commending the Freemasons "whose adherents today certainly number among our staunchest patriots and anti-Communists."
In 1977, a group of former JBS members exposed the organization's subversive connections in an report titled The Belmont Brotherhood (referring to the coterie of leaders at Belmont, Massachusetts where JBS offices were originally located). This 12-page report concluded that the John Birch Society presents the most diabolical form of the Illuminati conspiracy:
"You may object: 'Look at all the great things Welch has done - he has exposed the Illuminati.' Baloney. The Illuminati was merely a branch of the Conspiracy. How can one attack the Illuminati without attacking the diabolical power behind it: organized Freemasonry? Welch has provided the most valuable service of all time to the Conspiracy. He founded an organization to neutralize millions of Americans from discovering what the true power behind the Illuminati really was. And we concede the Mason's chose an extremely clever man to do the job. Welch, with the help of the Belmont Brotherhood, plays his role very effectively."
By creating the perception that the conspiracy is Communist, the John Birch Society diverts suspicion from the Radical Right, whose principals have been discovered in cooperation with same. Conservative disinformation also creates a diversionary conflict which acts to prevent an alliance from forming to recognize and overturn the true conspirators. To this end, the principle of conflict management is employed, as described in a quote from This Age of Conflict by Ivor Benson:
"The plan, I think, is the old one of world dominion in a new form. The money-power and revolutionary power have been set up and given sham but symbolic shapes (‘Capitalism’ or ‘Communism’) and sharply defined citadels (‘America’ or ‘Russia’). Such is the spectacle publicly staged for the masses. But what if similar men, with a common aim, secretly rule in both camps and propose to achieve their ambition through the clash between those masses? I believe any diligent student of our times will discover that this is the case.— Douglas Reed"
A.K. Chesterton's observation bears repeating:
"At times Capitalism and Communism would appear to be in conflict, but this writer is confident that their interests are in common and will eventually merge for one-world control."
Also, Dan Mantooth on conservatives in the 1993 U.S. Commission on Improving the Effectiveness of the United Nations:
"If you haven't already figured it out, what we've been describing here is a tight group representing the merger of the left and the right." 3.
Finally, researcher Dana Hoard:
"What I am discovering about politics is that it is not a matter of opposition or support -- H.R. 2431 being only one example. Rather, it is a matter of controlling both sides on any issue -- building a power base, mobilizing people and receiving funding from supporters on both sides of the issue. But only those at the top will determine the final outcome."
A conservative/liberal labyrinth of immense proportions is designed to confuse and confound the American public as to the true nature of the conspiracy. This series will deal with only the small segment of this network whose principals conspired toward the Religious Persecution legislation.
You may be surprised to discover that the crafters of the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act (HR2431) also gave us GOALS 2000, formerly America 2000. Also, that members of the Council of Foreign Relations sit on their boards and fund their organizations, effectively controlling the Christian Right. The principal organizations known (by us) to have been collaborating toward the passage of HR2431/S772/S1868 are as follows:
Church of Scientology
Helsinki Commission
The John
Birch Society
Hudson Institute
The
Council on Foreign Relations
Freedom House
International
Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
Christian
Solidarity Worldwide
The Council for National Policy
International Cult Apology Network
1. Russ Bellant, The Coors Connection, South End Press, pp. 1988 45, 46.
2. John Saloma, Ominous Politics, NY: Hill & Wang, 1984, p. 53.
3. Don Mantooth, The Mantooth Report (RR 1, Box 387, Salem, IN 47167).