David Duke Active on the National and International Fronts
Posted: March 14, 2005
In January and February 2005, David Duke was active on both the national and international fronts. In January, Duke was flown to Sweden by the Swedish "patriotic community," according to his Web site, to promote his book Jewish Supremacism, which has been translated into Swedish. Duke gave speeches in Stockholm and in Helsingborg during his trip and hosted a daily Webcast featuring various Swedish "patriots."
On February 11, the New York Sun published a letter from Duke rejecting the paper's assertion that were he invited to speak on a college campus – as controversial professor Ward Churchill had been recently – his visit would "rightly" be opposed. Duke wrote:
When I was a student at LSU (Louisiana State University) I sat on the student speakers committee. I voted for all kinds of people I opposed ideologically to come speak at my university. Along with those I supported. Those who are suppressing freedom of speech at Hamilton should be interested to know that they are certainly more bigoted than the man they love to hate: David Duke."
Around this time Duke traveled to the Ukraine, where he enjoys a following. He was expected but failed to attend an anti-Semitic Moscow conference (on "Judeo-Nazi policy") on February 20. A few days later, he appeared remotely on the Fox News program The O'Reilly Factor. Asked about Ward Churchill's remarks that the U.S. – specifically, the victims inside the World Trade Center towers – were to blame for the 9/11 attacks, Duke said he agreed with Churchill that "we wouldn't have had 9/11 if we had minded our own business." (On its Web site, The O'Reilly Factor reported that Duke "was now living and teaching in the Ukraine," but this has not been substantiated elsewhere.)
Duke's European-American Rights Organization (EURO) was also active during this period, distributing EURO flyers in Connecticut. The distribution attracted substantial local press and television coverage.
The organization will be sponsoring a second European American conference in New Orleans from May 20-22, 2005; listed speakers include veteran bigots like Sam Dickson, Dr. Edward Fields, Kevin Strom, Don Black, Willis Carto and Duke.
Duke: July 2004 In July 2004, shortly after Irish voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum rescinding automatic citizen rights for non-Irish born in Ireland, The Dubliner magazine surveyed far-right activists for their view of the referendum. Like South Africa's Eugene Terreblanche and Klan leader Ray Larsen, Duke expressed enthusiastic endorsement, saying, "Civilisation hangs by a thread in many areas...far too many 'Special Rights' are being conveyed on these aliens, be from what country they may. God bless Ireland and may they finally get a grasp on the massive invasion." As a follow-up to the magazine story, Duke was interviewed on an Irish radio program and attempted to deflect accusations of bigotry by citing Israel's "racist" right of return policy. Another guest, an Irish parliamentarian, described Duke as an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.
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