January 14, 2003

Moon Shadow

The Rev, Bush & North Korea

by WAYNE MADSEN

When President Bush added North Korea to his list of "Axis of Evil" 
nations, the influence of the self-declared reincarnation of Jesus 
Christ, the "Reverend" Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, 
loomed largely over the White House decision-making process. The 
decision by Bush to throw into the trash heap of history eight 
years of a joint American-South Korean-Japanese dialogue with the 
reclusive Communist regime would ultimately result in Pyongyang 
returning to using the rhetoric of bygone years. Just as the Bush 
administration reintroduced to regular use the terms "segregation," 
"civil rights," and "ban on abortions," the terms
"demilitarized 
zone," "Panmunjom," and "38th parallel" would also
re- enter the 
American political lexicon.

Bush, a self-described "born again Christian" who has maintained 
close links to Moon, hired David Frum as one of his speechwriters. 
Frum apparently came up with the term "axis of evil" for Bush's 2002 
State of the Union address but it seems likely that Bush, heavily 
influenced by the propagandists of the rabidly anti-Pyongyang 
Washington Times, decided North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il 
was Satan reincarnate. 

(snip)

Next year, an Insight magazine reporter is poised to take over as 
President of the venerable National Press Club in Washington. Thus, 
in a presidential election year, a Moon employee will have influence 
on what politicians and candidates are selected for televised luncheon 
speeches carried by C-SPAN and other cable news networks. Democrats 
and Greens should be very wary. Some former Washington Times officials 
claim The Washington Times and its affiliates are so tied in with Moon's 
agenda, its reporters and staff should register with the Justice 
Department as foreign lobbyists under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  

Moon launched The Washington Times in 1982, just a few years after 
one of Moon's associates, Tongsun Park, was indicted for paying bribes 
to a number of U.S. politicians. The paper, which has a dearth of 
advertising revenue, has lost more than $1 billion dollars since its 
inception. Nevertheless, it has become a powerful conservative voice 
throughout Republican ranks in both the White House and Congress. In 
1996, former President Bush, who has taken millions of dollars in 
speaking fees from Moon, spoke before a Moon audience in Argentina 
and declared Moon to be a "man of vision." Bush 41, who could never 
really grasp the "vision thing," decided Moon had it.  

Moon's own background, which reportedly includes links to both the 
Korean CIA and its American counterpart, parallels that of other 
ethically-tainted individuals who have once again found sanctuary 
in a Bush administration: Elliott Abrams, John Poindexter, Otto Reich, 
and John Negroponte, all of Iran-contra infamy. The Washington Times 
was a leading supporter of the Nicaraguan contras and a chief apologist 
for the perpetrators of the arms-for-hostages scandal. Violating one of 
the main canons of journalism -- that newspapers should not become part 
of or create their own stories -- the Washington Times established the 
Nicaraguan Freedom Fund to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
the contras circumventing the Boland Amendment that prohibited 
Federal money for the rightist guerrillas. Moon was also one of the 
few influential people who continued to defend Richard Nixon even as 
the President was resigning over the Watergate scandal.  

In addition to his media empire, Moon also owns a Jonestown-type 
compound in Brazil called New Hope. He has also invested in the 
sparsely- populated and impoverished Marshall Islands. He has 
infiltrated one of the secessionist movements fighting for independence 
for the Angolan enclave of Cabinda. Moon's favorites in Africa included 
some of the CIA's most reliable clients: UNITA in Angola and RENAMO 
in Mozambique. Moon's fronts even maintained a dialogue with Pol Pot's 
murderous Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge murdered 3 
million Cambodians. More surprisingly, Moon reportedly partly owns 
a hotel in Pyongyang and a North Korean Fiat automobile plant. His 
flirtation with mind control techniques is legendary. Parents have 
spent millions trying to deprogram their children from the effects 
of Moon's Pavlovian brain bending methods. Moon's mass marriages of 
unwitting American males to Korean wives, while humorous on the surface, 
nevertheless managed to trap Zambian Roman Catholic Bishop Emmanuel 
Milingo. At least one pre-eminent Washington Times reporter is said 
to have been enticed into one of his boss's mass marriage ceremonies.  

At the 20th anniversary celebration of The Washington Times held last 
year in Washington, Moon seemingly endlessly spoke in Korean at the 
alcohol-free affair. He said The Washington Times would "spread the 
truth about God to the world." But in Moon's world, he is God. 
President Bush sent a message to the banquet stating, "Since 1982, 
people across America and throughout the world have relied on 
The Washington Times as a distinguished source of information 
and opinion."  

(snip)

But Moon is not only a danger to young people. While Bush accuses 
Kim Jong Il of all kinds of evil affronts he seems to ignore some 
of Moon's more bellicose and threatening comments. According to a 
1978 House of Representatives investigation of Moon some of the 
more outrageous comments include:  

---Unification Church members are to regard Korea with great reverence 
   and look forward to the day when the Korean language will be spoken 
   throughout the world.  

---Members are to maintain a view to establishing a "unified civilization" 
   of the whole world, to be centered in Korea and "corresponding to that 
   of the Roman Empire."  

---God was helping Moon to set up a final battle involving the United
   States, Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan.  

---Moon's plans are to manipulate seven nations at least, to get hold of 
   the whole world: the United States, England, France, Germany, Russia, 
   and maybe Korea and Japan. "On God's side, Korea, Japan, America, 
   England, France, Germany, and Italy, are the nations I count on in order 
   to gain the whole world," Moon stated.  

The House of Representatives report on the activities of the Korean 
CIA in the United States found evidence that the Moon organization 
had violated a number of Federal and state laws. In 1984, Moon was 
convicted of income tax violations and spent 13 months in prison. 
But remember, in 1996, Bush pere referred to Moon as a "man of vision." 
It should be noted that while Bush was head of the CIA, Moon was 
organizing a number of pro-American and anti- communist rallies 
and front organizations around the world. Moon was a convenient 
agent of influence for the CIA and Mr. Bush.  

(snip)

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and 
columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.  

Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777{at}aol.com

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Full article at Counterpunch - http://www.counterpunch.org/

Cheers, Steve..

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