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Me as the 3 of ♥
March 14, 2004

Me as the 3 of ♥. The U.S. military had the clever idea of identifying and prioritizing the Saddamist enemy by assigning each of the leaders a playing-card equivalent: Saddam Hussein himself was the ace of spades, on down to the 2 of clubs. This idea then caught on and all sorts of decks of cards proliferated. For example, newsmax.com offers a "Deck of Weasels."

Enter the well-known French author Thierry Meyssan. He's best known for his creative notion, turned into a bestseller, 11 Septembre 2001 : L'effroyable imposture (translated into English as 911: The Big Lie), arguing that there was no plane that hit the Pentagon; rather, this was a U.S. government conspiracy to justify the war on terror. Well, Meyssan in August 2003 designed cards of "Les 52 plus dangereux dignitaires américains" (also available in pdf format). Better yet, they are available in English and Italian translations.

Not only are many of my friends there, but so am I, starring as the three of hearts.

Do I really need to point out that both of Meyssan's description of me is as distorted as his understanding of what happened at the Pentagon that terrible day?

Asserts that Muslims cannot "melt" into US Society and thus recommends their exclusion from Civil Service and the Army. A chief organizer of the witch hunt on US campuses, he orchestrated the eviction of academics favorable to Palestinian rights.

In brief, I have never called for the exclusion of Muslims, only reluctantly concluded that given the campaign of militant Islamic violence, there must be special attention paid to them. Campus Watch is not about Palestinian rights but about the failure of Middle East studies in North America. And the notion that I have orchestrated any academic's "eviction" is the purest Meyssanian fantasy. (March 14, 2004)

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