Author of Leaflet Comes Forward

One day after a flyer decrying “the Jewish-Zionist hold on US political life” appeared outside some undergraduate dorms, a California-based activist and Holocaust revisionist confirmed that he wrote the flyer but said that he had no role in distributing it at Harvard.

The flyer—posted around Eliot House and outside several Yard dorms—was entitled “Iraq: A War for Israel,” and reproduced an excerpt of an essay that Mark Weber wrote for the Institute for Historical Review. It claims that “the crucial factor in President Bush’s decision to attack was to help Israel.”

It appeared alongside a second flyer that encouraged readers to join the organization National Vanguard, which the flyer described as “an intelligent and responsible organization that stands up for the interests of White people.”

That second leaflet went on to say, “many churches today play a dangerous role in favor of racial integration, and, especially in certain U.S. sects, in promoting Zionism,” and warned that “interracial sex is unsafe.”

In a phone interview from Newport Beach, Calif., Weber said of the first flyer: “The leaflet makes some of the same points as are made in the 81 page paper by [Kennedy School Academic Dean Stephen M.] Walt and [University of Chicago professor John J.] Mearsheimer.”

Walt and Mearsheimer published a paper on the Kennedy School’s website last month arguing that “the Israel Lobby”—a loose coalition of politicians, journalists, think-tank scholars, and Jewish leaders—holds an excessive influence on U.S. foreign policy.

Walt was unavailable for comment.

It was unclear who distributed the flyers.

“It had nothing to do with us,” said Weber.

“Maybe they downloaded it from our website or maybe they bought it from us,” he said.

However, he expressed no reservations about having his essay distributed alongside the National Vanguard pamphlet.

“I’m glad to see them distributed,” he said.

National Vanguard was unavailable for comment. Their website lists only P.O. box numbers—of which there is one in Boston—and several telephone numbers leading to prerecorded messages.

Weber said that, while he was in contact with individual members of National Vanguard, his Institute for Historical Review has no official ties to the Vanguard. “We don’t pool resources,” he said.

When asked yesterday afternoon by The Crimson about the flyers, a Harvard University Police officer, who refused to give his name, said, “this is the first we’ve heard of it.”

The National Vanguard leaflet renounces lawbreaking and violence. “Illegal activity, for any reason, is strictly prohibited,” the leaflet reads.

Eliot House Master Lino Pertile said, “A student gave me a couple of leaflets that had been found outside. They were nothing special, really.”

“I don’t think it’s a matter for the police,” he said.

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu.