Counterpunch’s Franklin Lamb Linked to Fascist ‘Voltaire Network’.

Counterpunch Linked to Far-Right Voltaire Net.

After Israel Shamir, we have Franklin P.Lamb.

He is a regular on the fascist ‘anti-imperialist’ Voltaire Network (23 articles – here).

His latest Counterpunch offering is an ‘analysis’ which claims that the Syrian uprising is being used to undermine the ‘resistance’ force Hezbollah,

Implementing the Feltman Project.  Is the Syrian Crisis Being Leveraged to Weaken Hezbollah?

One expects the answer, given the premis that Hezbollah is the “leader of the international Resistance.”

He concludes by asking,

The coming weeks will reveal what, if any, success foreign and domestic anti-Resistance forces achieve in using the Syrian crisis to dismantle Hezbollah.

This is a curious way of putting things, until you realise where Lamb’s thought processes originate.

He wrote in May an article, Has the Tide Turned in Favour of Assad?

Several high rankling Syrians, particularly in the offices that work in press, printing, publishing and distribution of government information cogently explained that President Assad himself is leading the fight within the regime for meaningful change and that a majority of the population supports him and want to help change Syria for the better.

Talking with a range of Syrian citizens, one senses a general willingness to believe their President and certain of his advisers and to allow the regime a little more time to make good on its promises.

Lamb then added,

Bashar Assad’s regime will likely survive despite some foreign efforts to capitalize on domestic Syrian problems.

What is Lamb’s Voltaire Network?

The President of the Network of Thierry Meyssan,  9/11 The Big Lie, which claimed that the 11th of September 2001 was due to an internal plot within the US administration. The Network broadcast this declaration widely. Meyssan’s works appear regularly on the Holocaust deniers’ site, Entre la plume et l’enclume.

The Voltaire Network is better known under its French title, Réseau Voltaire.*

It has faced accusations of supporting the Chinese and Russian states, anti-Semitism, and alignment with Islamists.

Supporters who resigned in 2005 said,

« sous prétexte de résistance à l’impérialisme américain, les accommodements avec les impérialismes chinois et russe et les rapprochements avec les islamistes traduiraient une dérive antisémite latente au sein de l’équipe de direction ».

Under the pretext of resistance to American imperialism arrangements have been made with Russian and Chinese imperialisms, and their alignment with Islamists has led to a drift towards anti-semitism, latent amongst its leading figures.

Thierry Meyssan is closely associated with the fascist and racist Dieudonné and his ‘anti-Zionist’ Party (Parti Anti Sioniste).

There is not formal tie between the Réseau Voltaire and this, very marginal, political party.

But what is clear is that the Voltaire Network is pro-Assad, like the Parti Anti Sioniste  as are many from this ‘nébuleuse‘.

Its director, Thierry Meyssan, wrote on the 19th of June, in The plan to destabilize Syria,

The operations conducted against Libya and Syria involve the same actors and strategies. However, their respective outcomes will differ since the situations in these countries are not comparable. Thierry Meyssan analyzes the semi-failure experienced by the colonial and counter-revolutionary forces, and predicts a pendulum reversal in the Arab world.

With yet another contributor to Counterpunch from this background we wonder why anybody takes it seriously, or indeed, took Alexander Cockburn seriously at all – ever.

*French Wikipedia.

“En février 2005, trois autres membres du conseil d’administration, Michel Sitbon, trésorier depuis la fondation en 1994, Gilles Alfonsi représentant le Parti communiste français, et Jean-Luc Guilhem, quittent l’association. Ils estiment que, « sous prétexte de résistance à l’impérialisme américain, les accommodements avec les impérialismes chinois et russe et les rapprochements avec les islamistes  traduiraient une dérive antisémite  latente au sein de l’équipe de direction ». Ils accusent l’association de servir secrètement la diplomatie française et de faire preuve de complaisance vis-à-vis de la Russie et la République populaire de Chine (l’un des administrateurs est conseiller économique de la ville de Shanghai.) Selon leur version, « le 26 février 2005, au terme d’une Assemblée générale à participation restreinte, convoquée dans des conditions sujettes à caution, les signataires de ce texte ont quitté le Conseil d’administration du réseau Voltaire tandis qu’y faisait son entrée Claude Karnoouh, chercheur au CNRS ». « Le 4 avril 2005 : Le nouvel organigramme du Conseil d’administration du réseau Voltaire vient de subir un nouvel aménagement : alors qu’il avait tout juste été intégré à l’instance de direction du réseau, Claude Karnoouh, chercheur au CNRS et soutien du négationniste Robert Faurisson dès 1981, vient d’en être débarqué. Les autres membres du conseil lui ont en fait demandé de se mettre en retrait pour ne pas être emportés avec lui dans la tourmente », affirme le site web Amnistia.net