This is being posted now because accusations are still circulating by Barack Obama supporters who erronously cite the Hillary Clinton campaign for producing and distributing these DVDs. Research shows that the dvds were produced in 2006 by an organization independent comprised of the Hillary Clinton campaign. The funders are described as a group of "hard-line neo conservatives including some Israli diplomats."

The Republican Jewish Coalition has also distributed free copies of the film in promotional mailings to U.S. rabbis and other Jewish mailing lists. ... Jews on First reports that Obsession has been distributed by other highly partisan neocon/Islamophobic groups:

-- Richard Silversteen, Sept. 14th, 2008
NAKED CAPITALISM
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/09/neo-conisraeli-venture-behind-28.html

DISTRIBUTION THROUGH NEWSPAPERS:

Where the newspapers with Obsession inserts were delivered
A New York Times spokesperson, Diane McNulty, told JewsOnFirst that the paper included 145,000 copies of the DVD in home delivery packets on Sunday, September 7th. She said the one-time insert went into packets delivered in Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Madison, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and Miami, Palm Beach, Tampa and Orlando.

The Wall Street Journal, the Denver Post, the Miami Herald and the Detroit Free Press also delivered inserts of the Obsession DVD, according to the News & Observer.

Another 70,000 DVDs went to subscribers to the paper edition of the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education. The insert cost Clarion Fund $28,000, Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Phil Semas told JewsOnFirst. Asked why the Clarion Fund decided to advertise in his paper, Semas replied: "I assume they felt we were an influential audience." The Chronicle publishes reports of interest to educators and academic officials, some of whom might be affected by the campaign to show the video on campuses.

Who, what and where is the Clarion Fund?
Because it was established only recently, the Clarion Fund has not yet filed its first required disclosure (Form 990) with the IRS. It is not disclosing its officers.

The address Clarion used to satisfy the New York Times' requirement that political or opinion advertisements include the advertiser's contact information -- 255 West 36th St., Suite 800, in Manhattan -- turns out to be Grace Corporate Park Executive Suites, an office-space rental operation which also rents "virtual office identity packages" for as little as $75 a month.

The Clarion Fund's only previous known address was that of its incorporator, New York attorney Eli Greenberg, on Madison Avenue. Gregory Ross said the Fund was based in New York and California.

Ross described the fund's staff as "sizeable," but did not give a number. Ross said that Clarion Fund is involved in "three linked efforts: documentary films, online education and college outreach," including sending speakers to campuses.

He also said that Clarion will not disclose its donors' names. He described them as "private American individuals that span the political spectrum."

--by JewsOnFirst.org, September 14, 2008

Like many issue groups, donors are hiding behind current flawed legislations which shields donors of non-profit issue organizations from public disclosure. DFWRCC has spoken out consistently against shielding non-profit or educational groups from revealing their donors. There are groups on the left and groups on the right utilizing these rules and promoting issues which impact political campaigns. America is a country based on the foundation of freedom of speech. Promoting issues is a freedom of speech issue. Shielding who is financing and promoting the distribution of such speech is not something, however, that should be protected under Federal Law.

During the Democratic Primary, Obama campaign organizers claimed that the distribution was tied to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Now it is being attributed to the John McClain campaign. In fact, it is independent of either of those campaigns. Some of the content of the DVDs is scurrilious. It is also just as scurrilious to attribute the DVDs to political candidates /campaigns which did not organizate, finance or approve it.

"Watch Obsession" staff will be in St. Paul this week to promote the documentary "Obsession," a film exposing the dire threat of radical Islamic terrorism. Staff will be available for media interviews before and during the Republican National Convention September 1-4.

'Watch Obsession' to Discuss National Security at Republican National Convention
Documentary about radical Islam will challenge RNC to make national security top priority
News release, WatchObsession.org, via Christian Newswire, September 2, 2008
"National security is a key theme of the Republican National Convention," stated Tom Trento, director of the Watch Obsession Citizen Education Program. "We're here to help inform and educate Republican leaders about terrorism. Our leaders must have the courage to explain just how deadly the threat of radical Islamic terrorism is to our country." --- JewsonFirst

Friday, September 26, 2008
Neo-Con/Israeli Venture Behind 28 Million Anti-Obama DVD Campaign


This is a departure from our usual programming, but we considered it to be worthy of your attention. From Asia Times (hat tip reader Cash Mundy):

A group of hardline United States neo-conservatives and former Israeli diplomats were behind the controversial, allegedly Islamaphobic DVD which was recently distributed in US swing states ahead of November's presidential elections.

The 60-minute movie,Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West , was an initiative of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), but produced by the Clarion Fund, an organization described as a "front" for Israeli group Aish Hatorah.

Some 28 million copies of Obsession are currently being inserted in newspapers and delivered by mail in key electoral swing states - such as Michigan, Ohio and Florida which, according to recent polling, could go either way.

Critics allege the movie Obsession is "hate propaganda" which paints Muslims as violent extremists and, among other things, explicitly compares the threat posed by radical Islam to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s - at least two major metropolitan newspapers refused to run the movie because of its perceived bias.

"Despite the perilous state of American newspapers, the St Louis Post-Dispatch advertising department took an ethical stand and refused to distribute the DVD of a film that for two years has troubled American Muslims," Tim Townsend, a reporter at Missouri's most influential newspaper wrote this month...

While initial press reports about the mass distribution focused on the Clarion Fund's financing role, it was EMET that organized and oversaw the distribution, EMET's spokesman and a former press officer for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Ari Morgenstern, told Inter Press Service....

Like hardline neo-conservatives, EMET opposes any land concessions to Palestinians and takes other hardline positions identified with Israel's right-wing Likud Party and the ''Settler Lobby'' there. EMET's website says, "We regard ourselves as 'intellectual revolutionaries'."

Two weeks ago, EMET sponsored a seminar series on Capitol Hill for the controversial multi-billionaire casino and hotel magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is a major donor to right-wing Zionist organizations in the US, such as the far-right lobby group, Freedom's Watch and the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC).

RJC efforts to persuade Jewish voters that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is aligned with radical anti-Israel forces in the Islamic world have drawn strong criticism from the mainstream Jewish press....

But EMET is not the only group involved in the controversy to have direct ties to Israel...

"It seems that the Clarion Fund, from what we can tell, is just a virtual organization that is a front for Aish Hatorah," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "They don't have staff, they don't have a physical address. Nothing."....

Foreign nationals and companies, and domestic tax-exempt non-profit organizations, are prohibited by federal election law from attempting to sway US elections at any level through either contributions to campaigns or advocacy.