I'm Ready For My Close Up, Reverend Moon

[Ian David]

Category:
Posted on: May 4, 2007 9:14 AM, by Ed Brayton

Mother Jones has an article about the continuing ties between the Bush family and the fascist cult leader, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. As I reported a few weeks ago, George HW Bush will, once again, accept a large amount of cash to sing the praises of this lunatic and convicted felon at the 25th anniversary of his purchase of the Washington Times. The Bush family has made millions for various business arrangements and speaking fees to lavish praise upon Moon, which the Moonies have then used as a propaganda tool around the world to show his followers how powerful he is and how well connected in the US government he is. Well connected enough to be crowned in the Senate office building by a US congressman, for crying out loud. The MoJo article has some details on Moon's history:

Moon and his Unification Church came to America in the 1970s and quickly plunged into Washington politics. "In the 1970s, church officials organized prayer breakfasts and rallies in support of President Richard M. Nixon, dispatched young female members to infiltrate congressional offices and had extensive 'operational ties' with the Korean Central Intelligence Agency as part of the agency's efforts to influence U.S. officials, according to a 1978 report by a House subcommittee," the Washington Post would later report.

Those ties became fodder for the 1976 Koreagate scandal, which centered around the figure of Washington lobbyist Tongsun Park, a man legendary for his lavish parties and gifts of cash in white envelopes. He, too, was long suspected of being connected to Korean intelligence; he was also an influence peddler of great renown, and anywhere from 30 to more than 100 members of congress were said to be under his thumb at the time. Park was never charged with any crime in connection with Koreagate, but last year he was convicted on conspiracy charges for his role in Saddam Hussein's United Nations oil-for-food machinations.

Moon was not prosecuted in connection with Koreagate, but he later became a target of an IRS investigation and in 1982 was convicted of conspiracy and filing false tax returns. He spent 18 months in federal prison. It was also in 1982 that he launched the Washington Times, which--with its access to conservative figures and reporters drawn from the newsroom of the defunct Washington Star --soon became essential reading for political news junkies.

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And the most appalling thing about this is the almost-total silence of the media about it.

More:
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/05/im_ready_for_my_close_up_rever.php