Amos's River of Justice

Tag: Department of Justice

  • The State of Israel is a False Friend

    The State of Israel is a False Friend
    American and Israeli Flags Credit: tzahiV

    Israel has a sordid history of its dealings with the United States. This has been documented in a recently released FBI file, Isaiah L. Kenen: Foreign Agent to Founder of AIPAC. According to this document, Isaiah Kenen and the Israeli government have abused the trust of the American people since 1948. The evidence suggests that the State of Israel is a false friend. This is a summary and timeline of the relevant events.

    1948: Isaiah L. Kenen and the Israel Office of Information

    In the late 1940’s, Isaiah L. Kenen was instrumental in lobbying the US Congress, the administration, and United Nations for the creation of the state of Israel in Palestine. In 1948, he moved from Israel’s UN delegation to start the “Israel Office of Information” on behalf of the Israeli Embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, he was obliged to register with the US Department of Justice under the 1938 Foreign Registration Act (FARA), which he did. However, in 1950, with the help of the Israeli government and behind the Americans’ backs, he began planning to break free of FARA oversight. This is one of several disloyal acts revealed in his biography, Israel’s Defense Line: Her Friends and Foes in Washington.

    The American Zionist Council (AZC): Isaiah L. Kenen acts in bad faith

    Kenen eventually left the Israel Office of Information (IOI) to lobby for the American Zionist Council. He later became founder and chairman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee known as AIPAC. It is now known that while Kenen was chairman of AIPAC he received strategic direction from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the founder of Mossad.

    In regard to the FARA registration for the Israel Office of Information, Mr. Arthur C.A. Liverhant, Second Secretary of the Israeli Mission, conferred in September of 1948 with Mr. Lenvin and Bernard S. Morris. Mr. Liverhant stated that offices were being established in Washington and New York with a director for each. Lenvin and Morris explained the registration process as well as the filing and labeling requirements.

    On October 10, 1948 Mr. Liverhant submited a foreign agent registration cover letter for a new “Israel Office of Information”. It named Rita Grossman, Bernard Zamichow, Isaiah Kenen, Harvey Rosenhouse and Harry Zinder as officers. Kenen was named as “Director of Information” of the New York office. He filed his personal Foreign Agent Registration on November 1, 1948. However, he failed to report his connections with foreign officials, such as Abba Eban and David Ben-Gurion. This also was not revealed until he published his biography.

    Unreported Israel Office of Information Office in the Los Angelas Consulate: DOJ Files Defenciency Record and Notice

    The DOJ submitted a Deficiency Record and Notice covering the dates from December 1948 to June 1949. It had discovered that the existence of another office in the Los Angelas Consulate had not been reported. The Israelis were advised to correct these deficiencies in the next supplemental statement.

    On June 30, 1950, Mr. Kenen submitted a supplemental registration statement for the Israel Office of Information. He did not disclose a trip to Capitol Hill to lobby for US arms and aid to Israel in January of 1950.

    Kenen Advised to File a new registration statement FA-1 for the Israeli Office of Information.

    The following memo was submitted to the FBI file on January 17, 1951.

    Mr. Isaiah L. Kenen, Director of Information for the Government of Israel’s Mission to the United Nations and one of the officers of the Israeli Office of Information, visited my office on January 17, 1951 to discuss his possible obligations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in the event he terminates his present activities and establishes his own public relations business.

    Mr. Kenen stated that his first client would probably be the Government of Israel and consequently I told him that he should file a new registration statement on Form FA-1. I explained to Mr. Kenen the registration statement of the Israeli Office of Information and the necessity for the filing of a new statement. Mr. Kenen stated that he would file a new statement as soon as he commences his activities on behalf of the Government of Israel. Suitable forms were given to Mr. Kenen.”

    FARA Section Memo by Nathan Lenvin concerning Isaiah Kenen’s visit

    Kenen Claims he is resigning from the IOI and Severing Ties with the Israeli Government

    However, on February 13th 1951 Kenen announced he was resigning from the Israeli Office of Information and severing ties with the Israeli government. He requested that FARA remove his name from their lists. This request was acknowledged by FARA Section chief William E. Foley.

    Kenen also submitted financial statements to the FARA office in April of 1951 and requested that his name be withdrawn from the IOI file. Three months later, an Israel Office of Information press release announced plans to solicit skilled workers.

    On the same day, James X. Kilbridge requested that the IOI Department of Professional and Technical Personnel be exempted from FARA registration requirements. The DOJ’s William Foley agreed. (No further information is available about Mr. Kilbridge.)

    The New York Times Announces Kenen’s appointment as the Washington Representative of the AZC

    In February of 1952, The New York Times published a short article entitled “I.L. Kenen in Zionist Unit Post“: 

    “The appointment of I.L. Kenen, former director of information for the Jewish Agency in Palestine, as the Washington Representative of the American Zionist Council, the public relations arm of Zionist groups in this country, was announced yesterday by Louis Lipsky, chairman of the council.  Mr. Kenen, who also has served as director of information of the Israel delegation to the United Nations, recently returned from Israel.”

    In March of that year, Kenen advised the FARA section office of his travels to Israel and receipt of Israeli government funds. However, he did not disclose conducting tours and lobbying initiatives with visiting congressmen on behalf of the Israeli government while he was there. The congressmen included Senator Javits and Congressmen Ribicoff, Fugate, Keating, O’Toole, Barrett and Fein. (This is detailed in All My Causes)

    Kenen claimed his employment at the American Zionist Council “expired” before his Israel visit, but he immediately returned to AZC lobbying. Even so, he claimed to be exempt from FARA requirements. (He presented his term at the AZC as ‘uninterrupted’ in his biographies.)

    FARA section gives Kenen a clean bill of health

    In April, FARA section responded to Isaiah Kenen “You state, however, that during the trip to Israel you did not publish or transmit to the United States any documents or propaganda material.  In view of your statement, you were not acting within the United States as an agent of a foreign principal…”

    The FBI Asked Assistant Attorney General Warren Olney III if they should investigate the Israel Office of Information

    The FBI director received and forwarded copies of Israel Office of Information literature in April of 1952. This literature was circulating without foreign agents disclosure stamps (a typical disclosure would read: “A copy of this material is filed with the Department of Justice where the required statement under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of the Israel Office of Information as an agent of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is available for public inspection.  Registration does not indicate approval of this material by the United States Government.“)  The FBI asked Assistant Attorney General Warren Olney III if the FBI should begin an investigation of the Israel Office of Information.

    Kenen had continued to work at the AZC.

    In 1962, the AZC was ordered to register as a foreign agent.

  • Free Dorothy Lee Barnett

    February 22, 2014

    In this this article, I had two aims: to illustrate a principle about women and custody; and to help this woman avoid prison.  I’m still of the same mind, but I wish I hadn’t combined Barnett’s story with the source about battered women.  The source does describe what happens to women like Dorothy Lee Barnett in the courts, but it doesn’t fit Barnett’s case exactly, so I’ve deleted it. We shouldn’t demonize people who make mistakes. The culprits here are the court system and the judges, who should know better.   Family courts are influenced by the men who run Fatherhood Initiatives.  These men are also responsible.

    Dorothy Lee Barnett is awaiting trial for extradition to the United States. She is charged with kidnapping her own daughter from her estranged stockbroker ex-spouse. Almost two decades ago, her ex won sole custody, even though the child was only nine months old and still nursing at the time. She felt the child was in danger, so she took her out of the country. If extradited, she faces up to 23 years in prison. I just signed the petition “US Attorney Office in Columbia: Free Dorothy Lee Barnett – Mother of Savanna Todd” on Change.org.

    It’s important. Will you sign it too? Here’s the link:((http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/us-attorney-office-in-columbia-free-dorothy-lee-barnett-mother-of-savanna-todd))

    Updated, Feb. 20, 2014:

    Here’s the post of a signer of this petition, Bruce Michell of Australia:

    Dorothy Lee Barnett was let down by people within the system.  During her trial she was subjected to abuse and vilification, and the judge neglected, failed and refused to file his orders into court within the mandated 30 days and in fact did not file for 75 days.  During that period, and without the signed order, Lee was unable to appeal and was effectively locked out of the legal process which should be everyone’s right to access.  The evidence accepted by the judge upon which he wrote a scathing decision was in the main, based on the uncorroborated word of the father.  She was castigated as an untruthful person for denying that she had a mental disorder and all evidence supporting her and contradicting the father, was suppressed.  There is such a gulf between the evidence and the final order, coupled with the misconduct of the judge, that the influence of the father, his attorney and the Guardian ad Litem must be considered suspect and should be the subject of a proper investigation by the authorities.

    On the second visitation after the father had custody, whilst the judge had not filed the orders, the baby was injured whilst in the care of the father.  The injuries were consistent with those described by the father in his ‘autobiography’ during the hearing where he wrote that it was “OK to kick a baby in the face.”  Lee was extremely fearful for her baby given those circumstances, but could not appeal, given the lack of a signed order.  Lee waited another 6 weeks after this incident but still the judge refused to file the order.

    Locked out of the legal system, fearing for the safety of her baby she obeyed the fundamental law of humankind which was to flee to safety.

    These events are recorded in the chronology and the details are contained in the trial transcripts.  Lee was terrified of the power and influence of this man and remains that way today.  If he and his cohorts could influence a judge and subvert the judicial system, then the system of justice in South Carolina was corrupt and it is reasonable to question whether that power and influence still remains today.

    It seems that Barry Goldstein may have been too kind when he said the family courts were making mistakes.  It seems this judge was acting deliberately.  This is his own responsibility.

    Original Article:

    We recognize what Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from a Birmingham jail as sound principle because it’s in our Declaration of Independence. “…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…,”

    In King’s words:

    “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” ((Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail. April 16, 1963, African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania.))

    Child custody law is broken, and American family courts are perpetuating injustice. Both mothers and their children suffer from this injustice, but it is the children who are in danger. Watch the video from the APN Newsdesk.((http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/mother-facing-years-jail-over-kidnapping-daughter/2153734/))

     

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