AHA-gate: Protest tegen AEI-aanstelling - Leon de Winter maakt Submission-II

Mon Aug 21 07:25:13 CEST 2006

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Bron:   PipeLineNews
Datum:  21 augustus 2006
Auteur: William Mayer
URL:    http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=aei82106.htm
Opm:    Eerder verschenen hier prima AHA-analyses,
        http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ali8706%2Ehtm
        http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ali52206.htm
        http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ali51506.htm

An Open Letter To The American Enterprise Institute, Regarding Ayaan Hirsi Ali
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

August 21, 2006 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - We feel it essential
to call public attention to this matter as the reputation of an esteemed
institution, the American Enterprise Institute hangs in the balance.

Mr. Christopher DeMuth
c/o Ms. Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

Dear Mr. DeMuth:

In an August 3 interview in the Jerusalem Post, aspiring AIE fellow Ayaan Hirsi
Ali stated that your organization is totally supportive of her plans to make a
sequel to Theo Van Gogh's movie "Submission."

Ali also at that time underlined the need for her collaborators on the film to
remain anonymous, declaring that "after Van Gogh's death "I've learned a lesson
and that is, you have to make a film without putting the identity of the people
out there. You have to be smarter then the killers."

These statements prompt several observations and questions.

Is the AEI aware that Hirsi Ali has already divulged the identity of the
director of upcoming film - thereby endangering him - when she stated in an
interview in Der Spiegel that "The director of my next film didn't like Van
Gogh."

Anyone familiar with this matter would immediately recognize that by this
statement Ali is effectively screaming that the slated director of her new film
is Leon de Winter, a Dutch filmmaker who has been a very vocal supporter of hers
and had been passed over by her for the filming of the original Submission
because she felt Van Gogh's name would get more attention. Her remarks are even
more damning for De Winter since in an open letter to Ali, journalist Ebru Umar,
a colleague of Theo van Gogh wrote this to her shortly Van Gogh's murder.

"I just have one question for you Ayaan. Why did you ask Theo van Gogh? Why
didn't you ask Leon de Winter? Isn't Leon your friend? Leon has ambitions for a
film career, this could have meant his breakthrough. You didn't ask Leon, that I
know. I think that is was for one reason alone, the international breakthrough
of Ayaan. And that would work better with a director who was named Van Gogh I
think. Or could it be that you didn't ask Leon because Leon is your friend, and
you didn't want to expose a friend to extreme danger? Why Ayaan? Why? Besides
the fact that Theo had given you 18,000 EU - would Leon have done that Ayaan?

Why did you use Theo, Ayaan? Although I saw no point in it, a mutual friend
found that we should get to know each other. I didn't think anything would come
of it. Because Ayaan, you are not interested in people that have an opinion,
except for your own."

Source - http://www.propriacures.nl/archief.php?artikelid=397

It is a well known fact in Holland that Leon de Winter "did not like Van Gogh,"
to the extent that he had a long running feud with him which included a lawsuit
claiming anti-Semitism. Ali's remarks and Umar's letter are obvious clues as to
the identity of De Winter, who has a family that is now also endangered.

In a a widely circulated Wall Street Journal article after Van Gogh's death,
Leon de Winter stated his antipathy to Van Gogh, and mentioned this lawsuit as
well.

In an article written this year in the NRC Handelsblad, Ali wrote that "I am
alive because I had bodyguards and he - Van Gogh - didn't" and "I exploited his
lack of fear".

Does it concern the AEI that Ali has endangered Leon de Winter, the planned
director of her next film by revealing his identity and in like manner is also
jeopardizing the safety of the staff at AEI because she is using your
organization to assemble and promote her planned film.

Ali's brazen and mercenary admission that "I am alive because I had bodyguards
and he [Theo van Gogh] didn't and I exploited his lack of fear" indicates a
callous disregard for her co-workers and colleagues. Her record and many public
statements prove this.

It should not require a think tank to deduce from her remarks that Ali regards
the AEI as nothing more then the Ali Enterprise Institute who will provide her
with funding and the prestige required to pursue her pseudo-intellectual and
gratuitously provocative film.

Who will be the designated Theo Van Gogh in this act of Ali's pageant?

What will such a project hope to contribute to the serious debate underway in
the West regarding radical Islam, aside from controversy? Such a project will
serve only to divert attention from the threat.

In large part Ali's film will be nothing but a promotional tool used to feed her
apparently insatiable ego, as such it's simply a way of attracting attention.

If the AEI is really so keen on courting controversy, as Ali alleged in her
JPost interview, is your organization prepared to underwrite the massive
security measures that will be essential to the protection of your staff,
grounds and buildings?

Ali is obviously aware of the physical danger this project poses to those
associated with it:

"Hirsi Ali - The conditions couldn't be more difficult (to make Submission ll).
We're forced to produce the film under complete anonymity. Everyone involved in
the film, from actors to technicians, will be unrecognizable. But we are
determined to complete the project. The director didn't really like van Gogh,
but he believes that, for the sake of free speech, shooting the sequel is
critical. I'm optimistic that we'll be able to premier the film this year."

Source - Der Spiegel,
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,399263,00.html

Source - Jpost,
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1154525796099&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Though it is doubtful that the identities of those involved with the making of
the film will be unknown for long, AEI itself remains a stationary target,
exposed and vulnerable.

Ali has stated - "I gave them [AEI] a proposal, in which I mentioned how I was
going to represent the Prophet Muhammad in New York and have him talk to a
number of Western thinkers, and they said, 'No problem.'

In summation, PipeLineNews has brought this to AEI's attention many times over
the last few months via email, repeated telephone calls to your Director of
Communications, the Internet and now through this open letter:

1. August 8, 2006 - Statement By American Enterprise Institute Scholar To Be -
   Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Raises Conservative Hackles
   http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ali8706%2Ehtm
2. May 22, 2006 - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 24 x 7
   http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ali52206.htm
3. May 15, 2006 - Hirsi Ali Climbs Over Corpse Of Theo Van Gogh, Lands Gig At
   American Enterprise Institute
   http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ali51506.htm

Yet AEI persists in pursuing this self-destructive arrangement to the detriment
of everyone affiliated with it.

We strongly urge you to withdraw the fellowship which was offered to Ayaan Hirsi
Ali, as we have stated in the past, "has neither the temperament nor the
intellectual gravitas necessary for successful scholarship - in our opinion she
is a train wreck just waiting to happen."

Regards,

William A. Mayer
Editor & Publisher
PipeLineNews.org

--------
(c) 2006 PipeLineNews

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