THE REVISIONIST

     As England slouches towards the European Union, it yet heeds the bidding of the Union's falconer, Germany.  Unfortunately, while Germany's success in most spheres over the past fifty years has been unrivaled, there is still some continuity with a more intolerant past.

In a recent move, spawned by the ubiquitous tabloid press of London, the German government is preparing to formally request the extradition of Germar Rudolf, 35, who has been a political refugee in Britain since 1995.  Such a request will involve the issuance of an international arrest warrant against Rudolf, and, after his arrest, to his immediate confinement in a German prison.  Several prominent Britons have already championed the move.

BUT WHAT HAS HE DONE?

   In the early '90's, Rudolf was in his late '20's, completing a doctorate in solid state chemistry at the Max Planck Institute.  The subject of his dissertation concerned the stability of cyanide compounds in brick and mortar, and his study established the baselines for present-day knowledge of the behavior of cyanide compounds over time, specifically, compounds of cyanide and iron, the so called, "iron blues."

His study was praised, not only by the chemists in the faculty of the prestigious institute but also by several historians, who were leaked copies of the study, now known as the "Rudolf Report."

So why the criminal charges?  Rudolf's sites of analysis were the various locations at the Auschwitz concentration camp where the use of cyanide gas had been reported: not only the delousing buildings for clothes, hair, and personal effects, but also the sites said to have been the notorious gas chambers.  Rudolf's conclusions, based on unassailable chemical procedures, authoritatively reproduced the findings of Fred Leuchter, the American expert in execution technology, and concluded that the use of cyanide gas in the spaces usually described as gas chambers would have been impossible.

A MODERN DAY MARTIN LUTHER

Rudolf has already been harassed, and his life ruined in Germany.  As a result of government action, his degree was suspended, he was fired from his job, he, his wife and three children, were subjected to several BATF-like raids which involved the state-authorized looting of his belongings, and he was driven from the country.  During his exile, his wife and children have returned to Germany, while his parents routinely have had their mail intercepted by government spies intent on gaining intelligence on Rudolf's whereabouts.

Through all this, Rudolf has refused to recant the conclusions of his scientific work.  Like Luther, he might well say, "I stand here: I cannot do otherwise."  But unlike Luther, no one stands up for him, and so while Luther was able to avert being burned as the stake, no German -- no European -- is apparently willing to intercede as Germany's massive record of human rights violations grows ever longer.

CONSEQUENCES

   If Rudolf is apprehended, he will be in good company in the cloud-cuckoo land of Modern Germany.  He will join, among others, the Australian Fredrick Toeben, held literally without habeas corpus for over six months, and being tried in Germany for alleged actions that took place in Australia and which are legal according to Australian Law; Udo Walendy, an elderly man who has already been imprisoned for three years but whose sentence is routinely extended by capricious German judges; and hundreds of other prisoners of conscience in the Millennium's first totalitarian state.

The real danger to integration, as John Stuart Mill understood, is that the parts are sacrificed to the whole.  As Europe integrates economically, it is essential that the rights of individuals be protected all the more.  However, the submissive posture of Her Majesty's Government to the German demand bodes ill, if not for the future of the Union, then at least for the peoples of Europe who will be forces to endure it.  More like George Orwell's 1984 than an effective and prosperous cooperative, the pursuit of Germar Rudolf on British soil effectively signals the end of Great Britain: and, while Charles may never be King of England, he may yet aspire to be the first Big Brother of Airstrip One.

(Read the writings that have defined a man as a criminal: http://www.codoh.com/found/found.html)