1 July 2010
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:58:03 +0100
To: pepis[at]yahoogroups.com,pepis[at]googlegroups.com
From: Tony Gosling <tony[at]cultureshop.org.uk>
Subject: [PEPIS] Spinprofiles Bilderberg page & others taken out
Web registrar's lawyers shut down SpinProfiles
http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/56-legal-issues/5378-web-registrars-lawyers-shut-down-spinprofiles
-
Our SpinProfiles wiki website at
www.spinprofiles.org was shut down
by web firm 1&1 Internet on 21 June because we did not remove a profile
on think-tank researcher Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, son of journalist
Christopher Hitchens.
In an email dated Friday 18 June, 1&1's lawyers said SpinProfiles must
'immediately remove the profile' by midday Monday, or face being shut down.
Although 1&1 do not host our site, the URL is registered with them. They
gave no explanation of how the webpage violated their terms and conditions
except that it included 'personal information' we did not have 'permission'
to use.
SpinProfiles' editor David Miller wrote back asking for more precise details
of the objection, arguing, 'It is clear that the content of the webpage in
question is factual and backed up by sourced information. It cannot be wholly
contrary to your conditions of service
'
The 1&1 legal team refused to elaborate further. We refused to remove
the page based on such a non-specific objection. It is our editorial policy
to correct inaccurate information as soon as it is brought to our attention
and also to offer a right of reply. That policy remains in force.
Such drastic action by 1&1 is clearly an attack on public interest reporting
and free speech. In principle this kind of objection could close down a wide
variety of websites and indeed most news media organisations.
We are working to get the site online again and ask our readers and supporters
to bear with us. The full SpinProfiles website can meanwhile be viewed at
another web address:
http://www.powerbase.info
http://powerprofiles.net/index.php?title=Alexander_Meleagrou-Hitchens
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens
From Powerbase
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens (born 1984)
is an American think tank researcher who undertook his higher education in
London and according to the
Policy
Exchange has worked in US right wing and neoconservative think tanks,
though it is unclear
when.[1]
Since 2007-9 he has worked - in particular on Islam - successively at
Standpoint,
Policy
Exchange and the
Centre for Social
Cohesion.[2] He has also blogged at the
Henry Jackson
Society[3] and
Hudson New York
websites[4].
He is the son of the journalist
Christopher
Hitchens.
Swift rise in the British Neocon firmament
Meleagrou-Hitchens was born in 1984 and finished eighth grade at the
Capitol Hill
Day School in Washington DC in 1998 at age 14. He presumably therefore
left High School in 2001. He subsequently gained a BA in Classics from Kings
College
London.[5]
He signed the
Unite
Against Terror manifesto in
2005.[6]
Meleagrou-Hitchens'
Policy
Exchange biography states that he took a Masters in International Relations
at Brunel
University.[7] According to Brunel, this was a Master of Arts degree
in Intelligence and Security Studies awarded in
2008.[8]
This course is taught by the
Brunel Centre
for Intelligence and Security Studies and the course director was
Anthony
Glees (though he left Brunel in 2008 and was replaced by Dr
Philip H J
Davies).[9]
At some point he is reported to have worked at
Standpoint, the magazine launched by the
Social
Affairs Unit (the think tank which published the manifesto of the British
neoconservative
Henry Jackson Society)
- prior to joining
Policy
Exchange in
2008.[10]
But since Standpoint only began publishing in June 2008, this must have been
for a short period. He worked at the
Policy
Exchange in 2008 where he was involved in work on 'security and terrorism'
including in September 2008 writing their controversial briefing on the Global
Peace and Unity event in
London.[11].
By October 2008 he had moved on to the
Centre for Social Cohesion headed
by
Douglas
Murray author of Neoconservatism: Why we need it. From here he
became involved in blogging at the Centre for Social Cohesion and also at
the Daily Telegraph, the
Henry Jackson Society
and
Harry's
Place, appearing in the tabloid press as an 'expert' on Al Qaeda in early
2009.[12]
Meleagrou-Hitchens runs Standpoint magazine's
Focus on Islamism
blog.
Unite Against Terror - 2005
In 2005 while still an undergraduate at
King's College London, Meleagrou-Hitchens
signed the
Unite
Against Terror manifesto. In his statement of support he noted that:
-
After the events of 9/11 it became clear to many in the US and UK as well
as a number of other countries that the West had to abandon its policy of
containing Islamic fascists in the countries that harbored them. A more active
and decisive policy had to be implemented. This has resulted in the liberation
of both Afghanistan and Iraq from the manacles of oppressive regimes that
not only openly supported such acts as 9/11, but also aided and abetted those
who were prepared to carry out further atrocities in the Arab world and in
the West. Those who hold the view that the liberations of the aforementioned
states has led to an increased threat from Islamofacist terrorists need only
look at statements made by Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers. Their Nazi-like
views regarding homosexuals and, among other things, their grievance at women
being uncovered in public, have been constant since they were established,
well before any troops had stepped foot in Afghanistan or Iraq. In addition
they see the pull out of foreign troops from Muslim land as simply the beginning
of the establishment of an Islamic super-state ruled under Sharia law, prepared
to re-conquer what they see as formerly Muslim lands. Thus in giving in and
looking to negotiate with such people, we will only strengthen their position
and assist them with their future aims. In joining this website I hope to
help promote the worldwide fight against fascism in its newest
form.[13]
Policy Exchange - Global Peace and Unity controversy
- 2008
In October 2008, Liberal Democrat leader
Nick Clegg criticised Policy Exchange in a letter to its director
Neil
O'Brien for briefing against the Global Peace and Unity event in London.
-
-
The Policy Exchange briefing I have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number
of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the
allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many
of the claims.
-
-
In particular I was appalled to see
âevidenceâ quoted from the
Society
for American National Existence, an organisation which seeks to make
the practice of Islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly
point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme
views by citing another.
-
-
My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt
to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre,
and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public
debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus
and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of
Muslims who will be in
attendance.[14]
The
Policy Exchange briefing also referenced an article by
Patrick Poole in
FrontPage
Magazine. The briefing itself is a word document and the 'properties'
of the file list Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens
as its author and state that the document was created on 19 September 2008
at
14.20.[15]
The document seems to have been written between the 4 September and the 19
September 2008 as this is when almost all the references in the document
(to internet locations) are said to have been
accessed.[16]
Centre for Social Cohesion - 2009
In February 2009 he was cited by the Daily Mail:
-
Yesterday, the Mail revealed how the Home Secretary was facing demands to
deny a visa to Ibrahim Moussawi - a spokesman for the Lebanese terrorist
organisation Hezbollah - to come to speak at a British university. Now it
has emerged that the lectures Moussawi plans to deliver are targeted at Whitehall
officials who deal in foreign affairs and extremism. They will each spend
up to £1,890 of taxpayers' cash attending the Political Islam
event at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS) next month. Moussawi - who is among the key speakers at the week-long
course - is scheduled to address two sessions on March 25 and is expected
to be paid for the talks.
-
Another speaker at the event is the UK-based extremist Dr Kamal Helbawy,
a former spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood - a group said to have inspired
Al Qaeda. Last night, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a researcher for
the
Centre for Social Cohesion, a respected
think-tank, said: 'In their willingness to pay extremists like Dr Helbawy
and Dr el-Moussawi, SOAS are helping these men present themselves as mainstream
figures. 'It is particularly worrying that the target audience includes
Government officials and the police, who may find themselves paying for advice
on tackling terrorism from its very exponents.' The CSC said it was now
imperative Miss Smith ban Moussawi, who has allegedly called Jews 'a lesion
on the forehead of
history'.[17]
In March 2009, he denounced the BBC for reporting the views of alleged torture
victim
Binyam Mohamed:
-
BBC chiefs were attacked last night for giving former Al Qaeda suspect Binyam
Mohamed a public platform without demanding answers about his alleged terror
links. The freed Guantanamo Bay detainee was allowed to brush aside questions
during a radio interview about the time he spent in Afghanistan. He refused
to explain his movements at the time of his arrest seven years ago or who
told him to go to the region. Instead, Ethiopian-born Mohamed, 30, repeated
claims he had been tortured by agents acting for British intelligence . Last
night, ministers were said to be privately furious at the "soft" interview
broadcast yesterday morning on Radio 4's Today programme...
-
Al Qaeda expert Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens,
a senior researcher at the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank, said: "The
BBC's responsibility is to licence-payers. Really, they didn't press him
hard enough on the issue of whether he had been to a training camp. "They
asked him but when he didn't give a straight answer, they didn't give him
the kind of interview Jeremy Paxman would give a politician. "He didn't give
a straight answer. He even denied knowing what an Al Qaeda operation was.
These are tactics straight out of an Al Qaeda manual. "What concerns me is
how they put the emphasis on his torture allegations and ignore allegations
that he trained in an Al Qaeda terror camp. "What we are doing is putting
the word of someone who has admitted being in a suspicious environment above
that of the US government. "It just seems to be an orchestrated move to show
that the UK and the US government are as bad or worse than Saddam Hussein's
government."[18]
One of the 'Saeed Watchers'
A frequent focus of Hitchens's attention has been SNP Glasgow candidate Osama
Saeed. Hitchens has described himself as one of the 'Saeed
watchers'.[19]
Affiliations
Education
Capitol Hill
Day School, Class of
'98[23]
|
King's College London 'Classical
studies'[24],
graduated 2005 |
Brunel University
MA in Intelligence and Security Studies |
Connections
-
Christopher
Hitchens, father 'In 1984, the couple's first child, Alexander, was born.
Hitchens said he had an odd thought in the delivery room: "When I saw my
son being born, I thought that the part of my funeral director had just been
cast."'[25].
Hitchens fils is now also a contributor to Lebanon's Daily
Star[26],
and
NOW
Lebanon[27] a publication of the US-backed March 14 Movement
to which Hitchens pere is
close.[28]
Publications
-
Talking with the Taliban Telegraph blogs, Posted
By: Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens at Oct 8, 2008 at 18:02:12
-
Don't fall for the Islamist letter, Barack Obama: Over
the years the open letter has become a very popular tool for the Islamists,
and one which they utilised yet again yesterday in a crass attempt at influencing
the Obama administration to base its foreign policy on how appease Islamists
and thus prevent them from killing people all over the world. By
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens Daily
Telegraph Comment, Last Updated: 6:31PM GMT 23 Jan 2009.
-
It is time for some of the self described moderates to prove
themselves By Alexander
Meleagrou-Hitchens, Centre for Social Cohesion Blog, March
13, 2009 11:36 AM
Notes
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â For example:
Don't fall for it Obama, HJS Blog - The Scoop,
posted by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens at 23/01/2009, accessed 6 April 2009
-
â For
example:Writings by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens,, accessed 29
June 2010
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â
Why I Signed: Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Unite Against
Terror, accessed 6 May 2009.
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â Mary F. Liddell,
Information Access Officer,
Freedom
of Information response (pdf), Brunel University, 6 May 2009.
-
â
Intelligence and Security Studies M.A., Brunel University,
accessed 6 May 2009.
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â
Talking with the Taliban Telegraph blogs, Posted
By: Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens at Oct 8, 2008 at 18:02:12
-
â JAMES SLACK HOME
AFFAIRS EDITOR 'CIVIL SERVANTS READY TO PAY £2,000 EACH (OF YOUR
CASH) TO HEAR EXTREMIST PREACH', DAILY MAIL (London) February 26, 2009 Thursday;
Cyril Dixon 'BBC accused of being too 'soft' on ex-terror suspect' The Express
March 14, 2009 Saturday, U.K. 1st Edition SECTION: NEWS; 5
-
â Unite Against Terror
Why I signed: Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, accessed 6
April 2009
-
â
Clegg attacks thinktank's "underhand" briefing on 'Unity'
festival, PoliticsHome, 24 October 2008.
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â Policy Exchange
Alumni:
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Research Fellow, 2008., accessed 6 April
2009
-
â James Slack,
'Civil servants ready to pay £2,000 each (of your
cash) to hear Islamic extremist preach', Daily Mail (London) February
26, 2009 Thursday, Last updated at 11:02 AM on 26th February 2009
-
â Cyril Dixon 'BBC
accused of being too 'soft' on ex-terror suspect' The Express March 14, 2009
Saturday, U.K. 1st Edition SECTION: NEWS; 5
-
â Alexander
Meleagrou-Hitchens,
[1],
Harry's Place, 30 October 2009
-
â
Blears Was Right: Lambert Is Wrong This is a guest post
by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Shiraz Maher, Harry's Place, Your View,
April 1st 2009, 2:08
-
â Alexander
Meleagrou-Hitchens,
[2],
Harry's Place, 30 October 2009
-
â
Boris fails to tackle Islamic extremism, 27 October 2009
-
â Capitol Hill Day
School
Windowpane,
Capitol Hill Day School Newsletter, Vol. 5. No. 2, Spring 2005, accessed
6 April 2009
-
â Capitol Hill Day
School
Windowpane,
Capitol Hill Day School Newsletter, Vol. 5. No. 2, Spring 2005, accessed
6 April 2009
-
â
The
Boy Can't Help It, By Meryl Gordon, New York Magazine, Published Apr
19, 1999, accessed 6 April 2009
-
â Alexander
Meleagrou-Hitchens,
Islamists kill, and the UK wants to talk, Daily Star (Lebanon,
29 April 2009.
-
â Alexander
Meleagrou-Hitchens,
Why
does the UK give Hezbollah a free ride?, NOW Lebanon, 22 May 2009.
-
â Michael Totten,
Christopher Hitchens and the Battle of Beirut, Contentions,
commentarymagazine.com, 26 February 2009.
|