manipulating US elections via a direct-mail video

[Hildegarda]

Today, the following video turned out in my mailbox: Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West (\\\http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsession:_Radical_Islam%E2%80%99s_War_Against_the_West):

a controversial 2006 documentary movie about radical Islamist teachings and goals which uses extensive Arab and Iranian television footage.[1] Obsession compares the threat of radical Islamism with that of Nazism before World War II, and draws parallels between radical Islamists and the Nazi Party during the War.

The mass distribution of the movie right before the US elections is sponsored by The Clarion Fund (\\\http://www.clarionfund.org/):



from Wikipedia:

Clarion Fund is a New York City-based nonprofit organization[1] founded in 2006 whose stated mission is "to educate Americans about issues of national security," with its main focus on what it calls "the most urgent threat of radical Islam."[2] The organization was founded by Canadian-Israeli[3] film producer Raphael Shore.[4]

According to Clarion Fund's incorporation papers, it is based as the same address as Aish Hatorah, a pro-Israel organization.[5] The three founders of The Clarion Fund are or were full-time employees of Aish HaTorah.[6] Raphael Shore, the leader of The Clarion Fund is also a full-time employee of Aish HaTorah.[6] The Clarion Fund has collaborated with pro-Israel media watch organization HonestReporting in the production of its films. HonestReporting originally was a project of Aish Hatorah.[5]

Adam Shatz of the London Review of Books has described the Clarion Fund as "a front for neoconservative and Israeli pressure groups".[..]

The group gained attention by distributing, with the aid of the Endowment for Middle East Truth,[5] free copies of the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, produced and co-written by Shore, by mail and in newspaper supplements.[8] The Fund has reportedly sent 28 million DVDs to at least 70 newspapers in swing states to place at the doorstep of newspaper subscribers.

Critics have criticized the Clarion Fund's distribution of Obsession, objecting to scenes of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers as misleadingly portraying Islam as a threatening religion bent on the destruction of Western civilization

[..]

In September 2008, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate the Clarion Fund's DVD distribution claiming that it was an attempt to influence the 2008 US presidential election. As evidence of inappropriate political bias on the part of The Clarion Fund, AP cited Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania reporting "that a Clarion Fund Web site ran a pro-McCain article before it attracted notice and was taken down.

Basically, fear-mongering at its finest, furthering Israel's agenda and backed by seemingly unlimited resources.

 

[D Rusak]

My neighbor got this in her mailbox in the suburbs as well. It was a supplement in one of the major newspapers in the region. Scary stuff, although an excellent opportunity to test out our new shredder at work (it eats CDs as well as paper!).

 

[Al Today]

Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West

Boy-o-boy. That came here in the mail at least a month or so ago. I watched it, and shook my head in wonderment (bewilderment).
I must say it's probably very stimulating to the good-ole-boy, guns-n-religion, pickup truck driving, beer drinking, kick stomping stereotype. Yep, I know cause I could have been in this group... I know they are out there. I can see passions on the rise. Probably makes some "patriots" wanna drive around and shoot 'em right off their porch... Kinda makes me sad "seeing" the masses getting really pumped up on this KRAP.