I. Opening Statement

There are a lot of clever people out there who learn how to manipulate the [Internet] technology in order to spread [as in <iSurvived.org>] their agenda of hatred."

Rabbi Cooper, Daily Breeze, July 2005

Apparently being solicited by Diana Day, a staff reporter of a California, USA, "zine" Internet publication <DailyBreeze.com> to comment on our posting of the critical study of Eric Saul,

[where he was exposed to be a Holocaust research impostor that has pushed for some six (6) years, through his bogus educational Holocaust exhibition "Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats," his petition and the claim to the Yad Vashem that the late American Vice-Consul Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV was an unsung Holocaust hero that needed to be awarded by Yad Vashem with the "Righteous Among the Nations" title --a title and claim that ultimately was rejected by Yad Vashem on March 7, 2005, and being in unison with our own findings],

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in a stunning move, chose that dubious Internet outlet to attack us publicly under the umbrella that he is attacking an "agenda of hatred" that appears to be Rabbi Cooper's "specialty."

In addition, for unknown reasons, Rabbi Cooper publicly has been threatening us with some sort of undisclosed action. Referring directly to this editor, Rabbi Cooper is being quoted as saying:

"I am certainly not going to broadcast to this individual [Brattman] through the media. I'm not going to comment to the media about what steps we're going to take."

Well, all that public denunciation thrown at us, for no apparent or known reason, by Rabbi Cooper, put us in a situation that requires a public response as silence, for us, is not an option. We owe such a response to our readers and to our extended family of Holocaust survivors.

As we have been made aware in preparing for this response, almost from the inception of the Internet, in the mid 90s, Rabbi Cooper began a relentless campaign (***see, our Selected Links posted herein at the bottom of the page) for censoring and limiting the spread of the Internet on the grounds that the Internet, by not being regulated by anyone, has the potential of creating great harm to the society as a whole by being able of disseminating and inciting uncontrollably hate, anti-Semitism, misrepresentation, as well as being able to promote illegal activities.

We respectfully, notwithstanding those concerns expressed by Rabbi Cooper, see the "open" Internet as an invaluable tool in being able to keep us abreast of our friends and foes alike --on their doings, propaganda, intentions, thinking, and modus operandi. In this respect, for those of us that subscribe to the dictum "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer," the Internet is an invaluable source of information.

It is a sobering thought in pondering whether the Holocaust could have been prevented or considerably diminished if the Internet would have been in place say, some seventy (70) years ago in the predawn era of the Nazi regime... And that is because if the world would have been rapidly made aware (through a cheap mass-media tool such as the advent of the Internet) of the many signs leading to the Holocaust, then perhaps the outcome of the Nazi campaign would have been vastly different...

Today, the security agencies of most, if not all, countries use the "unregulated" Internet as an invaluable tool in identifying and combating terrorism and illegal activities. To censor the Internet, as advocated with such zeal by Rabbi Cooper, would undermine and cripple those efforts in a considerable way.

And for those of us who cherish the freedom of expression and consider it as a cornerstone of the human dignity, the "uncensored" Internet is the ultimate frontier of that expression. In this respect, the "uncensored" Internet is perhaps the best thing ever happened to mankind and human spirit from its long and tortuous evolution. The 'tolerance' that so vividly is being portrayed in the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) through its Museum of Tolerance apparently is totally absent from Rabbi Cooper's makeup.

OUR	.
On guard 24/7

The Internet should remain and stand as the uncensored expression of anyone regardless of the person's background, religion, creed, sex, age, nationality, level of formal education, beliefs, or purpose of expression. The Internet should represent and remain the pure bastion of freedom in its true and uncensored form.

History has learned us that societies which embrace "censorship" are ultimately doomed to self extinction. Should Rabbi Cooper have been born in an oppressed and heavily "censored" society (such as in a Communist society as this editor has), Rabbi Cooper undoubtedly would have appreciated far more the meaning of freedom of expression and liberty.

Rabbi Cooper who was born in New York, knows better than most of us immigrants, that in the United States, more than anywhere else in the world, the freedom of free speech --regardless how offensive and distasteful it may be-- is at the foundation of the entire American culture and protected scrupulously by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that is one of the most cherished "commodity" of the people of the United States and, at the same time, the envy of the world. Many Americans have paid with their ultimate sacrifice so that Rabbi Cooper and this editor could have their say freely...

Clearly not all things are made of the same quality or be subject to the same quality control. In this regard, WHY the Internet would be different than any other man-made or natural-made product? Clearly the Daily Breeze publication is not The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

There are people, such as Rabbi Cooper, that for instance would give interviews for a Daily Breeze or the like publication. There are other people, like us, that under absolute no circumstance would honor a Daily Breeze publication and the like for an interview. There are people, such as Rabbi Cooper, that have no problem in throwing stones, left and right, under the umbrella that those actions are fighting hate and the evil when in fact, those very actions are exactly what hate and evil are made of...!

Preaching nice and wonderful sermons is rather easy as it requires only oratory skills. Living by the principles vested in those sermons is far more difficult as it requires character and discipline. For Rabbi Cooper, the preaching and the practicing appears to be two (2) distant and completely unrelated entities as can be seen, so eloquently, from his Daily Breeze interview.

In the same Daily Breeze article that Rabbi Cooper has chosen for his attack on us, the reader is also able to see this additional misinformation that is being posted, and we quote:

1. "Since the inception of the "Righteous Among the Nations" project in 1963, Yad Vashem has honored 18 people with the title. Recipients must have risked their lives while helping Jews, to qualify for the honor. "

Clearly, Rabbi Cooper must be fully aware --we hope-- that this information is not correct as Yad Vashem has recognized and honored not 18 but over twenty thousands (20,000) "Righteous Among the Nations" individuals... 2. "Brattman's site also includes a section attacking Bingham, now deceased, saying he was an adulterer and an anti-Semite who did not qualify as a Holocaust hero."

The fact that the late Bingham IV was an adulterer and later in life transformed into a hater of Jews and a Holocaust denier has nothing to do with WHY on March 7, 2005, he was rejected by Yad Vashem to be awarded with the Righteous title.    By the way, it was Yad Vashem and not Brattman that rendered the final "no hero" status on the late Bingham IV ! (See, if you will, our Yad Vashem posting in here.) Also, as it is well know, Oskar Schindler, for instance, was also an adulterer but that has had nothing to do with the fact that he, unlike Bingham IV, saved many Jewish lives and thus, awarded with the Righteous title by Yad Vashem.    In the Bingham IV case, Yad Vashem, after some seven (7) years of study was not able to find any credible evidence that Bingham IV saved even one single Jewish life from the Holocaust. That was the reason, and nothing else, as to WHY Yad Vashem could not award Bingham IV with the Righteous title. Bingham IV was NOT a rescuer of Jews --by any stretch of imagination, but a good, decent , and compassionate man during evil times --as noted by us in our study, and supported by Yad Vashem.     Rabbi Cooper may disagree with the Yad Vashem's findings and he may even place Yad Vashem on his hate-watch list... That is most certainly Rabbi Cooper's prerogative.    We, on the other hand, are pleased that Yad Vashem took notice of our rather singular work in rendering its final decision on Bingham IV --a work that Yad Vashem could not have seen where not for the uncensored and open Internet available in the countries that do not embrace the censorship.

With this being said, the hypocrisy of Rabbi Cooper appears to be monumental, truly of cosmic proportion:

• on one hand, Rabbi Cooper is preaching the world about the "ugliness" of the Internet and of the dangers that it poses as lacking quality control...
  
• on the other hand, we see the same Rabbi Cooper using the uncensored Internet with throwing stones left at right, arguably at will, through an Internet posting of questionable repute and "quality control" full of clear misrepresentations.

Censoring the Internet is good, in Rabbi Cooper's mind, as long as it does not apply to him... Well, that is the lesson that Rabbi Cooper appears to be conveying to us in here. On that note, may we respectfully remind Rabbi Cooper that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander...

Just because in our course of studying the Bingham IV case, as revealed in our Open Invitation to debate that matter, we have stumbled upon and exposed a Holocaust research impostor with ZERO academic credentials named Eric Saul (who back in 1998 submitted a Petition before Yad Vashem to award Bingham IV with a Righteous title that ultimately led Yad Vashem in rejecting that Petition --see in here, if you will, our posted study), that fact and that exposure, by any rational standards, cannot possible be construed as an "agenda of hatred."

Is that the "agenda of hatred" which Rabbi Cooper has been alluding to in the Daily Breeze? OR, Is it perhaps something entirely different? We do not have a clue on that score.

Maybe Rabbi Cooper is objecting to our posting of the internationally acclaimed photomontage of the Auschwitz Album with captions by Oliver Lustig --a compatriot of this editor and a Birkenau-Auschwitz Holocaust survivor-- that is currently posted in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, and Russian translations from the original Romanian text received. (How is that for a multilingual agenda...!)

Whatever Rabbi Cooper's annoyance is with us, that --most certainly-- needs not be confused, construed, or equated with an "agenda of hatred!"

Maybe Rabbi Cooper would have the decency, that one expects from a rabbi, to explain himself and let us know WHAT in God's name was he talking about? WHAT "agenda of hatred" was he able to detect from our tributary work on the Holocaust and its tragic legacy?

For the great majority of people, Jews and non-Jews alike, regardless whether or not they subscribe to a particular organized religion, a rabbi is a special holy person whose life is mirrored in the Torah teachings. Stabbing Jewish people in the back, as Rabbi Cooper did in the Daily Breeze article, appears to be fundamentally incompatible with the demeanor and the character of a rabbi. We however could be wrong on this score as we have no formal training or education in the teachings of the Torah (or of any other organized religion).

Rabbi Cooper's unprovoked public attack on us and our work was shocking indeed particularly since we do not have a clue of the scope, purpose, motive, or reason involved.

We surely would appreciate receiving from Rabbi Cooper some sort of explanation on all this so to be able to post it herein for our worldwide readers.

We hope the best and pray for Rabbi Cooper's troubled mind.

Respectfully submitted,

K. K. Brattman
Managing Editor

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