Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Forbes Writer Gets Oslo Terrorist Story Very Wrong

No, LGF is not ‘popular among anti-Islam activists’

Charles Johnson Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 9:41 am PDT

Note to Forbes writer Abigail R. Esman: you really should do some research before lumping me in with the “counter-jihad” bigots: What Really Lies Behind The Oslo Attacks – And Why It May Happen Again - Abigail R. Esman. [ http://blogs.forbes.com/abigailesman/2011/07/23/what-really-lies-behind-the-oslo-attacks-and-why-it-may-happen-again/ ]

At this writing, the sole suspect in custody is 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, who for the past several years has kept up running commentary on the site www.document.no (Google translation posted here ), a right-wing blog where he has targeted liberals, Muslims, and multiculturalism (“an anti-European ideology of hate that aims to destroy European culture, identity, and Christianity”). Yet nothing in these writings greatly distinguishes him from other followers of such blogs: he frequently praises a writer who goes by the name “Fjordman” and who is well known on the conservative, largely anti-Islam circuit; and he often cites posts from the site Little Green Footballs and Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugged , both of which are popular not only among anti-Islam activists, but amont even more moderate types concerned about the rise of radical Islam in the West.

I’ve had nothing to do with the “anti-Islam” blogosphere for years — in fact, they absolutely hate my guts. And Breivik did not cite posts from Little Green Footballs — he republished old articles by “Fjordman” that cited LGF, and he also cites many articles viciously attacking me. For example, on page 636:

“I have watched, for the better part of a year, a number of decent human beings including, but not limited to, Pamela Geller, Paul Belien, Diana West, the Baron and Dymphna from the Gates of Vienna blog and many others, being at the receiving end of a vicious smear campaign from Charles Johnson and Little Green Footballs which is unlike anything I have seen in my life. After engaging in an insane witch-hunt on imaginary Fascists, whose ranks seem to grow every month, Mr. Johnson now suddenly chooses to look the other way in silence when very real Fascists use violence to silence their critics in a major Western city. I admit that makes me angry, and I think I have the right to be so.

The time has now come for Mr. Johnson to apologise in public to the numerous people he has smeared since the fall of 2007, starting with the ones I have mentioned above. It’s not their credibility that’s on the line here. It’s his. If he continues to undermine those confronting Islamic infiltration, it will become increasingly difficult for LGF to present itself as an anti-Jihad website at all. At some point, the rapidly shrinking number of people in the northern hemisphere who haven’t been banned from the site yet will be forced to ask themselves whether the website and its owner have simply switched teams and joined the Dark Side.”

I never “apologized” for calling out these bigots and neo-fascists, and I never will.

Ms Esman, this should be corrected.

Esman has now removed the reference to LGF, with no comment, after I contacted her via email.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/38926_Forbes_Writer_Gets_Oslo_Terrorist_Story_Very_Wrong