Ward Churchill, Peter Arnett, Axis Sally

The war has begun to bring about discussion of the concept of treason. Most recently, University of Colorado professor and fake Indian Ward Churchill has become the subject of much discussion for his comments likening the victims of 9-11 to Nazis. He has also been caught on tape advocating terrorism and advising audience members on the best way to carry out terrorist acts (hat tip to Michelle Malkin):

You don’t send the Black Liberation Army into Wall Street to conduct an action.
You don’t send the American Indian Movement into downtown Seattle to conduct an action. Who do you send? You. Your beard shaved, your hair cut close, and wearing a banker’s suit.

For some reason, we have long been squeamish in this country about prosecuting anyone for treason. Much of this squeamishness results from the official MSM/DNC line on McCarthyism. [See Treason and McCarthy and his Enemies for the real truth about Joe McCarthy.]

Conservatives today point to Churchill and attack the media, the education establishment and others for promoting a culture that allows a Ward Churchill to thrive. Conservatives are right to make this kind of attack, but they are missing one point that would make their arguments more convincing.

We have precedent. In 1948, American authorities prosecuted Axis Sally for her wartime broadcasts. Axis Sally was an American citizen who had moved to Germany prior to the war. During the war, she broadcast propaganda for the German government designed to demoralize the American troops. Her most famous broadcast occured one month before D-Day, in which she took part in a radio play that stressed the deaths that would inevitably befall American troops in any invasion:

Perhaps Sally's most famous broadcast, and the one that would eventually get her convicted of treason, was a play titled Vision of Invasion that went out over the airwaves on May 11, 1944. It was beamed to American troops in England awaiting the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as well as to the home folks in America. Gillars played the role of an American mother who dreamed that her soldier son, a member of the invasion forces, died aboard a burning ship in the attempt to cross the English Channel. The play had a realistic quality to it, sound effects simulating the moans and cries of the wounded as they were raked with gunfire from the beaches. Over the battle action sound effects, an announcer's voice intoned, "The D of D-Day stands for doom... disaster... death... defeat... Dunkerque or Dieppe." Adelbert Houben, a high official of the German Broadcasting Service, would testify at Axis Sally's trial that her broadcast was intended to prevent the invasion by frightening the Americans with grisly forecasts of staggering casualties.

Axis Sally (her real name was Mildred Sisk) would be convicted after the war and would remain in prison until 1962. Using the standard under which Axis Sally was prosecuted ("prevent the invasion by frightening the Americans with grisly forecasts of staggering casualties") we could prosecute almost any MSM/DNC commentator, expert or reporter who has spoken about the War on Terror.

The main difference between Sally and the MSM/DNC puppets is that Sally actually left the country and took up residence in a foreign country before she committed treason. Otherwise, the situations are the same.

Another good example of a modern day Axis Sally is Peter Arnett, who went to Baghdad during the major combat phase of the Iraqi war and gave an interview in which Arnett told an Iraqi audience that Saddam was winning the war, that American resolve was weak and that American soldiers were bogged down. This interview was designed to bolster the morale of the Iraqi fighters, prolong the war and enable Saddam more time to transfer his WMD's to Syria.

Churchill and Arnett committed acts equally treasonous as Axis Sally. I think the key to overcoming our squeamishness about prosecuting treason today is to understand Axis Sally, Lord Haw Haw, Tokyo Rose and others. Check out more on Axis Sally here, here and here.
Discuss her on your blogs. Post and comment about Axis Sally and the other WWII propaganda traitors. If we can force a little history into the mainstream discussion and rescue the concept of "treason" from the memory hole, we won't have to stand by helplessly while taxpayer funded professors tell their audiences how to commit acts of terror.
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March 12, 2004 - Click here for more background on Axis Sally.
Correction - Axis Sally was released from prison in 1961 (according to World War II magazine's November 1995 issue) - not 1962 as I wrote earlier.