Letters
Re: Grover Furr’s “Lies, Damn Lies, and David Horowitz”:
Grover Furr’s recent article in The GC Advocate, “Lies, Damn Lies, and David Horowitz,” treats many serious issues that deserve our complete attention as scholars and graduate students.
First, let me confess that I know Grover Furr from my years as an undergraduate at Montclair State University, where I took a course with him on the contemporary novel. Dr. Furr is a committed progressive activist on campus and has championed many causes, including the anti-war movement and numerous anti-racist struggles. For these reasons, he is generally respected by faculty and students. I personally respect what he and many other contemporary scholars in the field of Sovietology are doing to challenge the orthodox metanarrative of twentieth-century communist history. Several scholars in the field now contend that Soviet historiography has generally been more interested in serving the ideological needs of the Cold War rather than the disinterested pursuit of truth.
The ideological demands placed on the academy in the current period are not unlike those of the Cold War. Private and state funding has shifted from Sovietology to Middle East Studies to fund research that justifies U.S. military intervention in the region. We are living in an age where the theory and practice of imperialism is being rehabilitated by a combination of politicians, media pundits, and academics. Opposition to this hegemony is dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly as demonstrated by the cases of Ward Churchill, Grover Furr, and countless other academics and public intellectuals who decry imperialist wars of terror, torture camps, secret wire taps, and whatever other political expedients our rulers might deem necessary.
Now, more than ever, academics must organize to defend dissonant voices that dare to challenge the orthodoxy of the corporate state. We should be especially sensitive to the precarious position of untenured faculty — junior faculty, contingent faculty, and graduate students — whose academic freedom in the classroom can be easily chilled by attacks on them or their colleagues. Academic workers of the world, unite!
Frank Crocco, English Department
Re: Bush’s Private Armies, Seen from Within:
“A minor point — one that you couldn’t know — about Pelton. It’s absolutely false that he was the only westerner to have spent time with Francis Ona on Bougainville. I can name three people immediately — Wayne Coles-Janess, Mandy Cavatini, and her husband Fabio. These are all film makers. I’m an anthropologist who worked on Bougainville. I never met with Ona. Anyway, this is of course a small thing. But I thought you might like to know.”
Don Mitchell
Idema’s Warriors
“I read your review of Pelton’s book with great interest, including your brief comments about Jack Idema. In the interest of an academic search for the truth, I think you will find a lot of very interesting facts about what Pelton wrote about Idema, as well as a theory of why Pelton devoted such space to him in his book, by contacting Idema’s defense attorney, John Tiffany.”
Ted Kavanau, CCNY 1955
Mr. Kavanau is far too diplomatic when he refers the “search for the truth”. Apart from spelling Mr. Idema’s name correctly, Mr. Pelton’s work — more specifically the chapter devoted to Idema – can best be described as fiction — and not good fiction at that. I am not discussing a few defamatory comments, but a complete fictionalized account of events. What is even more disturbing is that Crown Publishers parent company — Random House — had more than adequate information and documents discounting a vast portion of the vicious and false diatribe presented by Mr. Pelton. Three years before Crown published Licensed to Kill, Random House — which published The Hunt for Bin Laden – possessed documents, recordings, photographs, and video which prove the falsity of Pelton’s diatribe, and the questionable nature of his fraudulent sources. I only wish that we had an opportunity to discuss this matter further, and perhaps show you what I am talking about so that your review could be modified to reflect this great injustice perpetrated by Mr. Pelton.
John Edwards Tiffany, Esq.
Attorney for Jack Idema
Michael Busch responds:
I was pleasantly surprised by the response to my review of Robert Young Pelton’s Licensed to Kill. It reminded me that the CUNY system benefits from a rich diversity of people and opinions.
Don Mitchell correctly points out that Pelton was not Francis Ona’s only Western visitor to Bougainville. The error was my own. Many thanks for setting me straight.
As to the other letters, I admit to being skeptical of their intent. John Tiffany is right: Ted Kavanuagh’s diplomacy is certainly misplaced. The Jack Idema case has summoned all manner of nuts from the conspiracy-theory woodwork.
While I respect Mr. Tiffany’s commitment to seeking justice for his client, I am less impressed by the macho-mouthed Special Ops wannabes and other “super patriots” with which he’s chosen to surround himself. Their wild (and wildly bad) writing can be savored online at www.superpatriots.us. Mr. Tiffany’s willingness to associate with this motley assortment does little to help Idema’s cause, or his own credibility. Finally, in no way am I qualified to evaluate charges of Pelton’s supposedly libelous intent. The Columbia Journalism Review, however, is. Their assessment of the Idema case, and the evidence Mr. Tiffany purports to possess, can be easily accessed online at www.cjr.org.
That said, should Tiffany see fit to arrange a meeting with Idema in his Kabul prison cell, I’ll gladly make the trip.
Michael Busch
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