This is just a short follow-up on the last piece I posted. I thought there might be some interest in what has transpired since I first wrote. For those who are not interested, I apologize.
On 10 January 2011 and through the day on 11 January I received a long series of e-mails from Mr. Marc Grayson (British18@earthlink.net). The e-mails addressed my many failings: bad education, bad civil servant, and chief incompetent guy responsible for 9/11. I responded to each, stressing my strong belief that Mr. Grayson is a slug, an Israel-Firster, and an opponent of free speech.
As the e-mails rolled in, it became clear that Mr. Grayson was trying to goad me into getting angry so I would use an ethnic slur of some sort that he could use against me with Georgetown and/or another of my employers. I did not take the lure and instead stressed his slug-and-Nazi-like behavior in my responses. I was interested, however, in seeing what he would do with my e-mails.
Interestingly, the subjects of this flood of e-mails were the same sort of abuse Mr. Grayson sent me in the first half of 2010. And his early 2010 e-mails, moreover, mirrored almost perfectly the kind of abuse delivered against me by a man named Gabriel Schoenfeld in the Weekly Standard and Commentary Magazine several years ago. At that time, Mr. Schoenfeld went so far as to establish a “Scheuer Watch” in his blog for the latter journal. Oddly enough, Mr. Grayson’s attacks on me in the past few used frequent quotes from Schoenfeld’s work, quotes that employed the same themes he was using: Scheuer is bad guy, with bad education, and is friend of Osama. He also placed links to two of Schoenfeld’s anti-Scheuer articles in several of his 10-11 January 2011 notes.
Well, these crafty Israel-Firsters have sprung the trap that this elderly country bumpkin never saw coming! Here’s an e-mail I received a few hours ago:
From: Frank Elliot <fjphares@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:42:15 -0800 (PST)
To: <mfs47@georgetown.edu>
Subject: BlogI came across your blog and noticed your preference for posting private emails and email addresses. I’m sure you won’t mind then that I’ve posted on various popular blogs and websites your private emails to various people in which you make some very inappropriate statements including your email address, too.
Cheers!
What a shock? These Israel-Firsters are just too smart for poorly educated me! And now you and I are suppose to believe all of this is just a coincidence: Schoenfeld attacks me; then Mr. Grayson attacks me with the same themes; and then a third party — Frank Elliot — arrives out of the blue to post my e-mail responses to Mr. Grayson. Mr. Elliot also has sent me a second note saying that he has sent my responses to Mr. Grayson to — you’ll never guess!!! — Georgetown University. (Interestingly, Mr. Elliot’s e-mail address includes the name “Phares,” which is the last name of another Israel-First terrorism analyst, Walid Phares. I have no idea if Mr. Schoenfeld, Mr. Grayson, Mr. Elliot, and Mr. Phares are connected. I am sure it is just another coincidence.)
Well, that’s all the news. While I hope this doesn’t bore readers too badly, I do think all Americans should be a bit concerned when so much Israel-First effort is expended to silence a minor and mostly insignificant voice in the debate over U.S. foreign policy.
Finally, I am going to post separately a piece that contains about 40 of the e-mails that passed between myself and Mr. Grayson in the past 48-hours. I want call readers attention especially to note #39 in which Mr. Schoenfeld flays my integrity for claiming an award he says I did not receive.
As readers of this site know, I always admit and then try to correct my mistakes. In regard to Mr. Schoenfeld’s claim, I admit to making a mistake in a note I sent to Commentary Magazine several years ago. In that note, I mixed up the dates of two awards I was honored with during my career. To set the record straight: I received the CIA’s Intelligence Commendation Medal in 1995 for my unit’s role in capturing Ramzi Ahmed Yusuf, the bomber of the World Trade Center in 1993, and I received an award citation from from the Department of Justice/Southern District of New York for the data my unit provided to the Southern District’s attorneys that allowed them to indict Osama bin Laden in federal court.
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