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Arson Of Institute For Historical
Review Office Tied To JDL

By Matt Krasnowski
Copley News Service 11-27-2
The Daily Breeze - Torrance, CA
12-3-2


A Jewish Defense League member claimed credit in a taped conversation for firebombing a "Nazi bookstore" that law enforcement sources contend is the 1984 arson fire that destroyed the Torrance office of a group that claims the Holocaust was a hoax.
 
Prosecutors alleged in court Monday that during their investigation of JDL member Earl Krugel he claimed credit for a firebombing of a bookstore. They refused to discuss the bookstore allegation beyond what was in the paperwork. But a law enforcement source familiar with the probe said investigators strongly believe Krugel is referring to the July 4, 1984, firebombing of the Torrance office of the Institute for Historical Review, which was a lightning rod for controversy during the early 1980s.
 
The fire at the group's Noontide Press, 2539 W. 237th St., was believed to be started by a Molotov cocktail or by someone dousing the building with gasoline and igniting it, police said at the time. The fire caused $300,000 to $400,000 damage. Krugel is currently in custody and was arrested last year along with late JDL chairman Irv Rubin on charges of plotting to bomb a Culver City mosque and an office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. Krugel has pleaded not guilty and his trial is set to begin in January.
 
The bookstore allegation stems from Krugel's attempt to be released on bail. He contended he should be released in light of Rubin's death earlier this month after an alleged suicide attempt. Prosecutors opposed bail, contending Krugel was a danger to the community and citing a transcript from a snippet of November 2001 taped conversation between Krugel and an informant.
 
According to court papers, the informant asked Krugel about the biggest bombing he has "ever seen, done" and asks if the JDL bombed offices of the Anti-Defamation League.
 
"Nobody hit the ADL although they deserve it richly," Krugel reportedly said. "Uh, no it was on the uh, bookstore... that Nazi bookstore... the Holocaust deniers."
 
"I remember you telling me something about that," the informant replies.
 
"That was beautiful, man," Krugel said. "I did it. It was better than I expected."
 
Krugel also notes that authorities never linked the arson fire to the JDL. "Not one ounce of heat came down with it," he said.
 
During a hearing Monday, Krugel's lawyer, Mark Werksman, said his client "denies being part of any such scheme." Werksman said the allegations should not be considered in the bail request because Krugel "is not charged" with any bombing and the allegation "is not proven."
 
U.S. Magistrate Judge Victor Kenton rejected the bail bid, saying there was evidence to support keeping Krugel jailed even without the new allegations.
 
The Institute for Historical Review's office and bookstore had been the target of vandalism and protests in the past and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought by a concentration camp survivor. Mark Weber, director of the IHR, said he wasn't surprised that the attack was linked to the JDL.
 
"Krugel's statement confirms our suspicions about that attack," Weber said. "It's good to see some sort of resolution of this crime." Weber said that after the fire Rubin came to the location and denied responsibility for the fire but praised whoever did it.
 
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Comment And Response
 
Institute for Historical Review http://www.ihr.org 12-3-2
 
Founded in 1978, the Institute for Historical Review is a public interest research, educational and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of key chapters of history, especially twentieth century history, that have social-political relevance today. The IHR is non-ideological, non-political, and non-sectarian. It is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, tax exempt educational and publishing enterprise.
 
The Institute's offices are located in Orange County, southern California. Mark Weber has been the IHR director since 1995. Its work is funded through sales of books and cassette tapes, subscriptions to its Journal of Historical Review, and donations from supporters around the world. In its day-to-day operations, the IHR employs its modest financial resources very cost-effectively. For every dollar it spends, the IHR's adversaries spend a hundred.
 
The IHR is at the center of a worldwide network of scholars and activists who are working -- sometimes at great personal sacrifice -- to separate historical fact from propaganda fiction.
 
Legally, the Institute operates as an entity of the "Legion for the Survival of Freedom" (LSF), a non-profit corporation founded in 1952 and controlled by a board of directors.
 
Devoted to truth and accuracy in history, the IHR continues the tradition of historical revisionism pioneered by distinguished historians such as Harry Elmer Barnes, A.J.P. Taylor, Charles Tansill, Paul Rassinier and William H. Chamberlin. The Institute's purpose is, in the words of Barnes, to "bring history into accord with the facts."
 
With growing support from across the United States and many foreign countries, the IHR works to bring sanity to America's foreign policy, to liberate people from pseudo-religious intimidation, and to uphold the First Amendment right of free speech. The IHR also works to tear down barriers to international peace and understanding by encouraging greater awareness of the root causes, nature and consequences of war. Nowhere is this work more important than here in the United States, where untold billions of dollars have been squandered in preparation for pointless wars and conflicts.
 
Growing Impact
 
Defying powerful adversaries, the Institute's impact continues to grow. While media coverage of the IHR is often hostile, the Institute and its work steadily receive ever more widespread and respectful attention. The Institute is now accepted, however grudgingly, as an established part of the American social-cultural landscape.
 
The IHR has been cited in every major American newspaper and magazine, and in many periodicals in Europe and the Middle East. Institute spokesmen have made numerous radio and television appearances, both in the US and abroad. Millions of Americans were introduced to the IHR through a broadcast of CBS's "60 Minutes," one of the country's most widely viewed television shows. The front cover of an issue of the IHR Journal was also shown on screen.
 
Moreover, steadily growing numbers of scholars and educated lay persons -- across the United States and around the world -- rely on and support the IHR and its work.
 
The Holocaust Issue
 
Even though IHR books and IHR Journal articles have consistently dealt with a broad range of historical topics, certainly the best-known and most controversial aspect of the Institute's work has been its treatment of the Holocaust issue. For example, the Los Angeles Times (May 15, 1994) has described the IHR as a "revisionist think tank that critics call the 'spine of the international Holocaust denial movement'."
 
Although the Institute does not "deny the Holocaust," over the years it has published detailed books and numerous probing essays that call into question aspects of the orthodox Holocaust extermination story. IHR publications have devoted considerable attention to this issue because it plays such an enormously significant role in the cultural and political life of America and much of the world.
 
Opponents of the IHR, in their efforts to discredit and marginalize us, routinely mischaracterize the Institute as a "Holocaust denial" organization. This smear is completely at variance with the facts.
 
Around the world awareness is growing that the "Holocaust" campaign is a major weapon in the Jewish-Zionist arsenal, that it is used to justify otherwise unjustifiable Israeli policies, and serves as a powerful tool for blackmailing enormous sums of money from Americans and Europeans. Even a few courageous Jewish writers have spoken out against what they call the "Holocaust cult," the Holocaust "racket," "Holocaustomania," and the "Holocaust industry."
 
If the revisionist view of the Holocaust were really as simplistic and indefensible as some insist, it would not have gained the support of university professors such as Arthur Butz and Robert Faurisson, historians such as David Irving and Harry Elmer Barnes, former concentration camp inmates such as Paul Rassinier, and American gas chamber specialist Fred Leuchter. These individuals did not decide publicly to reject the orthodox Holocaust story -- thereby risking public censure, and worse -- because they are fools, or because their motives are evil, but rather on the basis of a sincere and thoughtful evaluation of the evidence.
 
Bigoted Attacks
 
Occasionally the Institute is denounced as a racist or fascist "hate group." This too is a baseless smear. Since its founding the IHR has steadfastly opposed bigotry of all kinds in its efforts to promote greater public understanding of history. It does not seek to whitewash any past regime or rehabilitate any ideology. The IHR is proud of the backing it has earned from people of the most diverse political views and racial and ethnic backgrounds.
 
At the 13th IHR Conference (May 2000), a featured speaker was John Sack, who is Jewish. A report by this veteran American journalist and author based on his participation in the three-day meeting appeared in the February 2001 issue of Esquire magazine. Rejecting the often-repeated lie that the IHR and the revisionists are "haters" or bigots, Sack described those who spoke at and attended the IHR conference as "affable, open-minded, intelligent [and] intellectual." He also affirmed that numerous revisionist arguments and findings are, indeed, true.
 
Far from being a fomenter of hate, the Institute has been a target of hate groups. During the 1980s, the Jewish Defense League -- identified by the FBI in 1985 as the second most active terrorist group in the United States -- repeatedly assaulted Institute offices and staff members. Following numerous death threats by telephone and mail, extensive property damage, five relatively minor fire bombings, one drive-by shooting and two physical assaults, the Institute's office-warehouse was destroyed in an arson attack on July 4, 1984. Estimated property loss was more than $400,000, including tens of thousands of books, rare documents, irreplaceable files and expensive office equipment.
 
In addition, well-financed special interest groups seeking to curtail open discussion of vital historical issues have for years targeted the Institute, grossly misrepresenting its work and purpose. Prominent among these are the Simon Wiesenthal Center (Los Angeles) and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (New York) -- stridently partisan organizations with well documented records as staunch apologists for narrow Zionist-Jewish interests.
 
The Journal of Historical Review
 
The Institute's Journal of Historical Review -- the leading periodical of its kind in the world -- appears six times yearly in an attractive illustrated magazine format. More than 60 issues have appeared since it first began publication in 1980. The Journal editor is Theodore J. O'Keefe.
 
The IHR Journal, says best-selling British historian David Irving, "has an astounding record of fearlessly shattering the icons of those vested interests who hate and fear the truth. That is why I strongly endorse it, and suggest that every intelligent man and woman in America, Britain and the dominions subscribe."
 
In addition to individual scholars and discerning lay readers, leading university libraries and academic centers around the world subscribe.
 
More than 20 distinguished historians, educators and other scholars are members of the Journal's Editorial Advisory Committee. Journal contributors have included respected scholars from around the world. Journal articles (along with IHR leaflets and other IHR materials) are frequently disseminated globally through the Internet, and are often reprinted, translated and circulated worldwide. Hundreds of Journal items can easily be downloaded from the IHR's well-organized web site.
 
Conferences
 
Since 1979, the IHR has held 13 conferences, presenting speakers from Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as the United States. IHR speakers have included:
 
* John Toland, Pulitzer prize-winning American historian, and author of several best-selling works of history. * John Sack, veteran journalist, war correspondent, historian and novelist. This Jewish-American writer is the author of nine non-fiction books. * Dr. James J. Martin, an American historian with a 25-year career as an educator. Author of several meticulously researched historical studies. Contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. * Paul "Pete" McCloskey, former US Congressman (Rep.-Calf.). This US Marine Corps veteran braved enemy fire in Korea, opposed Richard Nixon on Capitol Hill, and spoke out against Israel's violations of US law and the deceit of the Israel-first Anti-Defamation League. * David Irving, British historian and author of numerous bestselling works. * Hideo Miki, retired professor at Japan's National Defense Academy and retired Lieutenant General of Japan's Self-Defense Forces. * John Bennett, noted Australian civil liberties attorney and activist, and president of the Australian Civil Liberties Union. * Fred Leuchter, America's foremost expert on execution hardware. Author of a widely discussed forensic report on the alleged extermination "gas chambers" at Auschwitz.
 
IHR Conference addresses are available on audio and video cassette.
 
Publishing and Outreach
 
A major task of the Institute is the publication of solid works of history. It brings long-neglected revisionist classics back into print, and breaks fresh ground with professionally edited and attractively designed first editions of important new works.
 
Most IHR books can be found in major libraries around the world. One title alone has sold more than 50,000 copies. Several IHR titles have been published in foreign-language editions. In addition to its own titles, the IHR distributes scores of worthwhile books issued by other publishers. More than a hundred solidly researched books and dozens of compelling audio and video tapes are listed in our catalog.
 
Hundreds of thousands of leaflets from our popular introductory series have been sold and distributed. IHR speakers are available for meetings and radio and television appearances. Depending on availability of financial resources, the IHR also helps fund primary scholarly research of critical historical issues.
 
For Peace And Understanding
 
Bitter experience has taught us just how little we can trust politicians and governments, especially during wartime when official and semi-official propagandists are most busy deceiving the public. As American historian Harry Elmer Barnes put it: "Truth is always the first war casualty. The emotional disturbances and distortions in historical writing are greatest in wartime."
 
Powerful interests -- including politicians and the major media -- distort the historical record for self-serving reasons. Textbooks, motion pictures and television routinely present history in a slanted and partisan way. As George Orwell aptly noted in his classic Nineteen Eighty-Four: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
 
Americans have been misled into one costly, devastating, and needless war after another. During the Vietnam and 1991 Gulf Wars, for example, government officials and much of the media lied to and deceived the American people to justify needless slaughter and devastation.
 
As shrewd observers have long understood, history is written by the victors. This is particularly true with regard to the history of the Second World War. Routinely the origins and nature of that catastrophic conflict are deceitfully portrayed as a simplistic struggle between good and evil.
 
In seeking to replace ideologically-driven and emotion-charged portrayals with truth and fact, the Institute promotes historical awareness, understanding and mutual respect among nations. Artificially maintaining the hatreds and passions of the past prevents genuine reconciliation and lasting peace. As Barnes emphasized, historical revisionism is the key to just and lasting peace.
 
An awareness of real history provides understanding about the great issues of the present and the future. The work of the IHR in "blasting the historical blackout" (Barnes) is all the more relevant in this first decade of the 21st century.
 
In a world often saturated with historical lies and self-serving propaganda, the Institute for Historical Review stands as a precious bulwark and beacon.
 
 
Institute for Historical Review A Few Facts About the Institute for Historical Review PO Box 2739 -- Newport Beach, CA 92659 http://www.ihr.org
 







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