Barnes Review

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Records relating to or mentioning Barnes Review. Founded by Willis Carto in 1994, The Barnes Review (TBR) is one of the most virulent anti-Semitic organizations around. Its flagship journal, The Barnes Review, and its website, Barnesreview.org, are dedicated to historical revisionism and Holocaust denial. The organization is also a moneymaking enterprise. Besides journal subscriptions, its TBR Book Club and online bookstore promote and sell a wide range of extremist books and publications. The Barnes Review also hosts nearly annual conferences that attract an international crowd of antigovernment extremists, anti-Semites, white supremacists, and racist conspiracy theorists.

Named after Harry Elmer Barnes, a prominent 20th-century anti-Semite and Holocaust denier, The Barnes Review was created by Willis Carto, who also founded the extreme right-wing Liberty Lobby and the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), another Holocaust denial organization. Carto created The Barnes Review as a rival to IHR after he was forced out by the IHR's leadership in 1993 for financial mismanagement.

Claiming that its mission is to "tell the whole about history," TBR really practices an extremist form of revisionist history that includes defending the Nazi regime, denying the Holocaust, discounting the evils of slavery, and promoting white nationalism. The Barnes Review magazine has published articles entitled "Adolf Hitler — An Overlooked Candidate for the Nobel Prize?", "Treblinka Was No Death Camp", "Is There a Negro Race?", "‘Reconquista': The Mexican Plan to Take the Southwest", and "David Duke: An Awakening." The Barnes Review, like most of the radical-right institutions started by Willis Carto over the decades, also gives voice to any number of wild conspiracy theories. TBR's website puts it like this to its readers: "Many intelligent Americans still believe Pearl Harbor was a ‘surprise attack.' It was not. ... Many still believe Columbus (or Leif Ericsson) was first to America. He was not. ... Or what about proof that there was federal foreknowledge and complicity in the OKC bombing? There was. We can't even begin to discuss here the many questions that have never been answered about 9-11. The list of historical lies and distortions goes on and on and on. . ."

Besides serving Carto's ideological and propaganda purposes, much of this "historical" work also serves to raise money. Annual subscriptions to the bimonthly journal are $46. Recommended works by the TBR Book Club, including Cultural Insurrections: Essays on Western Civilization, Jewish Influence & Anti-Semitism and March of Titans: A History of the White Race, can be purchased at TBR's online bookstore. Advertising space is for sale. There is even a "TBR Distributor Program" that will pay people for recruiting new subscribers to the TBR journal. The ad does its best to entice potential collaborators: "But before you say you can't afford it or it's too much work, look how easy — and how profitable — we've made it."

The Barnes Review's nearly annual conferences also provide an opportunity to market TBR's materials and ideology — and are nonsectarian in regards to all manner of extremism. In past years, paying attendees could listen to lectures by longtime anti-Semite Eustace Mullins, antigovernment conspiracy-monger (and former FBI official) Ted Gunderson, and neo-Nazi Alex Hassinger, who runs Nordwave, a Florida group that calls itself "The Voice of National Socialism." Hutton Gibson, an anti-Semitic "radical traditionalist Catholic" and the father of actor Mel Gibson's, was extremely popular during the 2003 conference.

Even some more supposedly mainstream individuals have participated in what is really a Willis Carto show. William Lind of the Free Congress Foundation, a far-right outfit headed by Paul Weyrich (one of the founders of the Moral Majority), gave a speech at the 2002 conference. Although he told his audience that his Free Congress Foundation was "not among those who question whether the Holocaust occurred," he went on to lay blame for "political correctness" and other evils on so-called "cultural Marxists," who turned out to be the same folks Carto blames for America's ills. "These guys," Lind explained, "were all Jewish."

There is also an international presence at many of these conferences. For example, Arthur Kemp, a notorious South African white supremacist tied to the U.S. neo-Nazi group National Alliance who was once accused of helping plan a major terrorist assassination in his home country, spoke in 2006.

More recently, The Barnes Review has begun promoting Christian Identity, a radical theology that claims that Jews are the literal descendants of Satan, on its website and in its journal. The article "Christian Identity: American's Best Hope?" appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of The Barnes Review, and Carto personally posted to its website the article, "Is Christianity Relevant?" The article outlined Carto's belief that "the Identity message holds out the hope for survival — not only spiritual and cultural survival — but racial survival."

Please conduct a search of the Central Records System, including but not limited to the Electronic Surveillance (ELSUR) Indices, the Microphone Surveillance (MISUR) Indices, the Physical Surveillance (FISUR) Indices, and the Technical Surveillance (TESUR) Indices, for both main-file records and cross-reference records of both HQ and all field offices for all relevant names, agencies, organizations, companies and events including but not limited to those cited in the previous paragraphs and/or links as well as a cross-reference with the Southern Poverty Law Center to include any information provided by the SPLC. My request includes but is not limited to 137, 157, 176, 177, 183, 184, 188, and 214 files. If previously released records are available, then I request a rolling release consisting of those records while additional records are located and processed for release.

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities for AND Magazine, MuckRock and Glomar Disclosure and have an open arrangement with each. My articles have been widely read, with some reaching over 100,000 readers. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through the non-profit Internet Archive, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance. Additionally, case law states that “proof of the ability to disseminate the released information to a broad cross-section of the public is not required.” Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep’t of Justice, 365 F.3d 1108, 1126 (D.C. Cir. 2004); see Carney v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 19 F.3d 807, 814-15 (2d Cir. 1994). Further, courts have held that "qualified because it also had “firm” plans to “publish a number of . . . ‘document sets’” concerning United States foreign and national security policy." Under this criteria, as well, I qualify as a member of the news media. Additionally, courts have held that the news media status "focuses on the nature of the requester, not its request. The provision requires that the request be “made by” a representative of the news media. Id. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II). A newspaper reporter, for example, is a representative of the news media regardless of how much interest there is in the story for which he or she is requesting information." As such, the details of the request itself are moot for the purposes of determining the appropriate fee category. As such, my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available and I therefore request that fees be waived.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Michael Best

I am appealing the integrity of the search, as the parameters I specified were not met, including but not limited to a failure to search the field offices I requested and a failure to search for all names specified and the failure to perform the cross ference searches with the individuals I identified. Nor was an attempt made to locate correspondence with the SPCL. I specifically requested "a search of the Central Records System, including but not limited to the Electronic Surveillance (ELSUR) Indices, the Microphone Surveillance (MISUR) Indices, the Physical Surveillance (FISUR) Indices, and the Technical Surveillance (TESUR) Indices, for both main-file records and cross-reference records of both HQ and all field offices for all relevant names, agencies, organizations, companies and events including but not limited to those cited in the previous paragraphs and/or links as well as a cross-reference with the Southern Poverty Law Center to include any information provided by the SPLC. My request includes but is not limited to 137, 157, 176, 177, 183, 184, 188, 214 and 266 files. If previously released records are available, then I request a rolling release consisting of those records while additional records are located and processed for release."

To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following request, copied below. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following request, copied below. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.