Into the Lion's Den, Vital Perspective Infiltrates A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition

On Wednesday night, the bloggers of Vital Perspective attended an A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition meeting on immigration and witnessed first hand the intermarriage of radical socialism and militant Islam, packaged for the politically correct 21st century. The meeting, dubbed "Beating Back Bush and the System" attracted an odd mix of about twenty people of varying ages and backgrounds, brought together by a desire for revolution and a mutual understanding that facts and history were merely minor hurdles in their struggle. Below (left) is a picture of their Washington, DC headquarters. At right you see the side door entrance with a notice that reads "Please knock loud if door is locked" under a picture of Che Guevara (click to enlarge and see clearer).

 

The speakers were Juan Jose Gutierrez (below left), formerly of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and currently the Director of Latino Movement USA, who organized the Los Angeles immigration protest on March 25, and Brian Becker (below right), National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition.

    

Our interest in A.N.S.W.E.R. began after reading David Horowitz's description of the group. He writes that it is a front for the Worker's World Party, a Maxist-Leninist vanguard aligned with North Korea's Communist regime and with the International Action Center. Horowitz describes them as "Communists" who have denounced Washington as the "Axis of Evil," called for revolution in the United States, and has led crowds in chants of "Allah u Akhbar." In September 2002, Iraq was "added to the agenda of demonstrations already planned to coincide with the second anniversary of the Al-Aqsa intifada..." which were organized "as an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian terror campaign."

On to the meeting... We weren't allowed to take pics inside (thankfully we had hidden our tape recorders - portions of our tape were generously mastered and edited by Joe at Joe's Dartblog and posted on April 9 by John Hinderaker at Power Line). The one door out was locked (as the sign indicates) and all the windows were boarded up from the inside. The meeting was held in the basement and the best way to characterize the scene was pre-1970 leftist revolutionary. We picked up some literature, including a copy of Socialism and Liberation.

We had hoped for some wild rhetoric on the Middle East, but the topic of discussion was immigration, and despite our best efforts to steer the conversation to foreign policy, the speakers stayed on topic. There were still a few quality moments though that we've transcribed. Of note, in Becker's opening remarks, he said "The flyer said Revolution and Rebellion, and so we figured once we put that out we’d get at least one or two undercover police officers being that we’re so close to the Capitol building. So you may be here, we don't know, but we're not that worried about you." We don't think there were any undercover cops, but there were some undercover bloggers!

Read on, and bear these statements in mind when they take over the National Mall on Monday afternoon and New York City on April 29. Fellow Washingtonians can also expect a pro-Venezuela, pro-Cuba rally on May 20 according to literature we grabbed.

ON IMMIGRATION:

• "It’s not yet clear to some important segments of the American population, whether or not immigrants are in fact criminals or not, by the mere fact that they've broken an administrative law, not a criminal one, in coming across the border in search of jobs and survival, but did it without going through the proper channels." -Juan Jose Gutierrez
• "If you really think about who the undocumented worker is in America, you know, you easily come to the conclusion that they’re modern day slaves. They may not work on cotton plantations and other parts of agriculture like back in the days of slavery, but if you really start thinking about who this segment of the population is, you easily see they're modern day slaves because they don’t have any help, they don't have drivers licenses, they can't collect Social Security, they can’t collect anything. The money that they’re paying into the system, remains in the system to the tune of billions of dollars a year. Nobody's talking about that! Everybody's talking about how they're abusing the social safety net benefits that this society has, or what remains of it." -Juan Jose Gutierrez
• "The Sensenbrenner bill is so odious, such a threat, so far reaching in its efforts to criminalize, make felons out of the 12 million people who are doing nothing except trying to feed their families, and make felons out of all those immigrant communities that assist those people, that the lash of the oppression, of that repression, of that counterrevolution, that it provoked the beginning of what could be a new revolutionary movement. Maybe it won’t be the ultimate revolution, but certainly it has the ingredients and elementary factors that make up all revolutionary movements. If you think about it, this is the way that all great movements start, including the American Revolution. -Brian Becker
• Speaking on the 'Great American Boycott' scheduled for May 1: "No work, no school, no shopping and no selling of anything. One day without immigrants." -Juan Jose Gutierrez

ON IRAQ:

• Iraq is "a criminal war, a war of aggression." -Juan Jose Gutierrez

ON GEORGE WASHINGTON AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

• "We look at George Washington, the leader of the American Revolution, his face everyday on the dollar bill – not that we’re big fans of George Washington." -Brian Becker
• "But what provoked the Civil War? It wasn’t that Abraham Lincoln said 'Gee, slavery has to be abolished', on the contrary, Abraham Lincoln insisted that slavery would be maintained through the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was a racist." -Brian Becker 

ON CAPITALISM, AN OWNERSHIP SOCIETY, AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY:

• "People are beginning to understand that we’re all bonded and interconnected and that the struggle of one - anywhere in the world - is the struggle of all across the world when it comes to the oppressed and to the workers that are having to fight against this barrage of so-called progressive developments within the world economic system where only corporations, capital and goods and services… and where all the benefits legislated by the respective countries are to directly benefit first and foremost, and almost exclusively, the corporations to the detriment of the national worker populations of those countries." -Juan Jose Gutierrez
• "The idea of a pension is becoming as ancient, as quaint, as the dinosaurs. Corporate America from GM to IBM to Polaroid are just taking the pensions that were the social contract with workers and shredding them. And saying once you're no longer useful to us – that’s what they call productive workers, meaning exploitable people – you're destiny is in your hands, that’s what I guess is the great honorific status of the individual is, that when you're no longer useful to a capitalist cause you can fend for yourself in old age and you can go into poverty or starve. The pension is being eliminated. Health care benefits, being eliminated. If you're a young worker and you're under 25 year old, the idea that you’re going to have what your parents had – or what some of your parents at least aspired to have – which is a decent job at a decent wage with health care benefits, that’s a myth, that’s a fiction, that’s gone. Because the globalization of capital, meaning the elimination of all obstacles that stand in the way of maximizing profit, that's come home. That's not just for Argentina, or Brazil or Mexico or South Korea, that process is not right here in the United States." -Brian Becker
• "It's the U.S. government's policy to impose on the people of Mexico something called NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Association. The North America Free Trade Association said to the Mexican government, you must lift any barriers or any tariffs that would prohibit the sale in Mexico any U.S. agribusiness products. So they did that in 1994." -Brian Becker  *Note: We think he meant to say North American Free Trade AGREEMENT*

ON STARTING A REBELLION AND A REVOLUTION:

• "We believe, I personally believe that the struggle of the immigrant worker in America is going to galvanize the energy and refocus the interest of all progressive causes in America." -Juan Jose Gutierrez
• "The honored national tradition is revolution, and certainly rebellion." -Brian Becker

Comments

[Tano]

Thanks for the info. I must say, they sound quite reasonable. I was really expecting to hear a lot of wacky, over-the-top childish nonsense - since that is the reputation that has been peddled about this group. But I read this stuff and it seems unobjectionable. Thanks for helping to unravel the negative spin about this group!

[Asher - Dreams Into Lightning]

Have to agree with Tano. I'm no fan of ANSWER, but I've heard a lot worse. The Iraq war was "criminal"? Hardly an original sentiment. Some not terribly flattering things about Washington and Lincoln? Big deal. Illegal workers are "slaves"? Idiotic, but again, no shock.

The post claims that you "witnessed first hand the intermarriage of radical socialism and militant Islam," but the quotes provide little evidence of this. You also admit, "We had hoped for some wild rhetoric on the Middle East, but the topic of discussion was immigration, and despite our best efforts to steer the conversation to foreign policy, the speakers stayed on topic." I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound much better than NBC's NASCAR stunt.

I think you've probably helped ANSWER more than you've hurt them here: even your cherry-picked quotes are fairly tame, and it looks like the organizers weren't naive about the likelihood of infiltrators (be they police or bloggers). Sure, I'd love to see something damning about ANSWER, but this isn't it.

[jummy]

true. progressive hate speech has been so far mainstreamed that its difficult to "get the goods" on them. also, it's not the cold war anymore, by which i don't mean to say that answer and related groups are innocuous -- quite the opposite: the american fifth collumn is no longer a factotem of of a foreign agency who's ties and associations can be discovered through this kind of reporting. they are instead the best financed and organized part of global radical anti-americanism. there's no conspiracy, they're up front about it.

[jummy]

tano, keep in mind that when they speak of revolution, they mean the kind with guns. the system they seek to implant at the end of this revolution can be surmised from their defense of the soviet union and n. korea.

[Granddaddy]

Is that house on Mass Ave?

[rjschwarz]

If there were only 20 folks there, how do you know 18 or so weren't conservatives pretending to be radicals to hear the message? That could explain the really low attendence at anti-war rallies if the bulk of their base were really curious spies.

[republic]

jummy, keep in mind that their are over 170 million law abiding gunowners in America, who will never allow anyone, even the current government system, to change the USA into anything other than the "Republic for which it stands".

For anyone to go against the "well regulated militia", would be insanity, and certain death.

That is why I love the 2nd Amendment most!

[Vital Perspective]

The address is on their flyer, Granddaddy, but it's not on Mass Ave...

Appreciate the comments Jummy... Tano, I think this serves two points: (1) Protestors otherwise not involved with them need to know who they're associating with; and (2) it shows their anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-globalization positions. If you wanted Death to America, read the latest on any given day from Tehran.

I don't see how you can find their material unobjectionable. Perhaps we agree to disagree? Becker drools over the possibility of the "ultimate revolution" - what do you think that means?

Asher - think you may have mistaken our lead in. The comments themselves don't support the statement, their prior behavior does. Also, we specifically cover the Middle East. It's not like the Middle East isn't one of their big issues. We thought it would be important to our readers to get their positions down cold.

[Vital Perspective]

rjschwarz -- WP expects 100,000 to show up on Monday in DC...

[Palamas]

Asher and Tano: If you'd like to see some examples of IA lunacy, visit their site (here) which has more than enough for anyone. If you're still not convinced, try FrontPageMag (here) for some especially horrific riffs.

[Jim Speers]

Thank you for your analysis. I have felt for several years that there were strong communist links to the worldwide Islamic terrorist movement. Just because the USSR collapsed doesn't mean the communist movement no longer seeks world domination as a central goal. It is no coincidence that Russia and China are arming the mullahs in Iran. The North Koreans are probably selling them what they have trouble getting from the "legitimate" governments of China and Russia, too (nerve gas, biological agents, etc.)

[Alexander Alt]

Just because 20 nutters attended and said some not-so-over-the-top things, does not make this group free of a great need of psychotherapy.

ANSWER is one of the biggest threats to American security. That they are openly cooperating with foreign enemies of America, including illegal aliens, shows just how dangerous they truly are.

[Asher - Dreams Into Lightning]

VP, I understand that. But it wasn't a Mideast-related event. I am sure there's no shortage of video, audio, and transcript of ANSWER spouting off about the Middle East; what you've got here, though, is an immigration-related event where they talked about immigration.

Palamas, you don't have to convince me. Really. My point is just that if the VP folks were trying to "get the goods" on ANSWER at this particular event, it looks like they came up with very little. At least in the way of Mideast-related material, and as VP says, this is a Middle East -related site.

I would agree with VP that the comments are not "unobjectionable" but I do think they're comparatively tame; so it's hard for me to see how this specific incident is going to turn anyone against ANSWER. There's plenty of far more incriminating stuff out there already, as Palamas has indicated.

[ajf]

"I kill a communist for fun, but for a green card, I gonna carve him up real nice. "

- Tony Montana

[Jeff]

Interesting stuff. Did you ask your questions in such a way that they immediately suspected you as the enemy? Or, did you sprinkle in plenty of curse words and slurs against Bush so they thought you were one of them?

[Van Helsing]

Great undercover work. Someone needs to keep on eye on these nutcases. Whatever comes along, if it is threatening to America, ANSWER will promote it. Daylight is the best antiseptic, but no daylight will be shined on these folks by the MSM, you can be sure of it.

[Young Goodman Brown]

...witnessed first hand the intermarriage of radical socialism and militant Islam

What "militant Islam" did you witness first hand?

[Calpurnia]

In December 2003, [ANSWER] helped to convene the second annual Cairo Conference, an anti-U.S. hate fest attended by a variety of Islamists, including Osama Hamdan, a top leader of Hamas. ANSWER has also given a seat on its steering committee to the Muslim Students Association (MSA). This American group presents itself as a benign advocate for Muslim college students. But as Jonathan Dowd-Gailey has recently documented in the Middle East Quarterly, the MSA has funneled money to the Holy Land Foundation and other charities accused of funding Hamas and Hizballah. MSA leaders have called for the death of all Jews and have spread pro-Taliban propaganda. The group advises its members that their “long-term goal” should be “to Islamicize the politics of their respective universities.”

Indeed, for radicals in the U.S. and Europe, any taboo that may once have kept them from openly collaborating with known Islamic terrorists has largely disappeared . . . in September, an “international strategy meeting” was being held in Beirut under the title, “Where Next for the Global Anti-War and Anti-Globalization Movements?” Among the hundreds of groups in attendance, from over fifty nations, were such pillars of the anti-globalization hard Left as Focus on the Global South, a think tank devoted to issues of international trade; ATTAC, a socialist network with branches across Europe and Latin America and links to European political parties; and CorpWatch, an American group that monitors corporate influence on politics.

And who was on hand as a conference host to welcome the delegates to Beirut . . . None other than . . . Hizballah, along with local Islamists and secular leftists. Though the conference did include radical advocates for the rights of women and other minorities, attendees seemed to have no problem taking directions from a group whose clerical overlords believe in a version of Islam that sentences homosexuals and adulterers to death by stoning.

by Joshua Kurlantzick

I've collected many articles and information on the Left-Jihadist connection, if you are interested in them please e-mail me. calpurnia_h@hotmail.com

[Young Goodman Brown]

Perhpas my question wasn't clear. What militant Islam did you witness first hand, as you claim to have done above?

[Vital Perspective]

Young Goodman Brown - always happy to take questions and respond back to comments - from time to time though we get sidetracked with actual work, so we apologize for the delay.

Through no fault of your own - and we see how it could be misunderstood - our statement of witnessing first hand the "intermarriage of radical socialism and militant Islam" has nothing to do with the context of what happened this past Wednesday night. Instead, it relates back to the well established and documented behavior and positions the organization has taken. Hope that clears things up. If not, send us an email, we'll respond quicker that way.

[redleg]

The comment that Abraham Lincoln was a racist shouldn't be a great shock. If taken out of the context of the 1860's and moved into the context of 2006, the comment is at least arguable. Any student of un-revised history could make that argument.

That aside, how could anyone it an IQ over 20 believe that illegal immigrants are wage slaves? It sounds nice, but the argument only works if you are predisposed to believe anything the idiot said. They were not captured, placed in chains and brought to the US against their will. They willingly came to the US, evading all means in use to prevent them from coming. And nothing prevents them from returning home.

I'm a bit tired of all the fellow travelers who buy into "it's ok to break the law and we should encourage it." That is not being anti-immigrant.

[Steve Sadlov]

Arrest all traitors, prosecute treason. Expand domestic espionage investigations. We are being attacked from within by sworn enemies. If we do not start to protect ourselves, we will truly be sorry. It is an emergency. Certain pleasantries have grown long in the tooth. Turning the other cheek to treason, espionage and latent insurgency will no longer work. We must stop being suicidal. What will it take to motivate our leaders to enforce the law?