From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Re: What the Trilateralists truly intend
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 18:57:45 GMT

In article <1jtmfgINNs3m@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> aq817@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steve Crocker) writes:
>
>Well, Ted, I may have located a CFR related threat to the US Constitution.
>Unfortunately, I don't have primary sources handy, so I'm forced to rely
>on third party characterizations. It shouldn't be too difficult to locate
>the material referenced, however, if you suspect the characterization is
>innaccurate. The following quote is from the 1985 report "The Trilaterial 
>Conspiracy Against the U.S. Constitution: Fact or Fiction" published by
>Lyndon LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review. 

I don't consider Lyndon LaRouche a credible source.  As you may recall,
he thinks Queen Elizabeth is the head of a worldwide conspiracy to deal
drugs.  He also has a host of anti-Semitic beliefs, and his organization
is run more like a cult than a political group.  I ask you to find better
evidence in the future, but I'll respond to it this time.

>"Cutler was a founding member of "Project 1987", a Brookings Institution 
>effort to overthrow the U.S. Constitutional system in favor of British
>parliamentarianism. 

Arguing parliamentarianism is better than republicanism does not equal 
supporting "overthrow."  (It may be incorrect, but it's hardly traitorous.)
Have you actually ever *read* anything Cutler wrote, or are you just
taking LaRouche's word for it?  I've read some of Cutler's stuff.  It's
pretty innocuous.  And hardly indicative of anything more than his opinion--
with a little work, I could find a CFR member who has written *against*
parliamentarianism.  I could probably even find two or three.

>While still White House counsel, Cutler published an 
>article in the Fall 1980 issue of Foreign Affairs, motivating his proposal
>for abandoning the presidential system, on the grounds that in the coming
>era of economic scarcity, a constituency-oriented political system would
>be incapable of imposing the necessary levels of austerity. In 1982, Cutler
>established the Committee for the COnstitutional System to lobby for his
>anti-Constitutional proposals.

Non sequitur.  A Constitutional amendment, by definition, is hardly
anti-Constitutional.  

If Cutler is the CFR's biggest threat to the Constitution (leaving aside
the fact that Cutler is a *member*, not a *representative* of the CFR), then
I safely stand by my claim that the CFR poses no threat to the Constitution.
I daresay a majority of the CFR opposes Cutler, just because a huge majority 
of people in Washington oppose Cutler on this issue.

>  Principal positions: chairman, D.C. Commission on Administration of Justice
>Under Emergency Conditions [charming name -SC], 1968; 

Is your memory of history so shady that you forget what "emergency
conditions" in 1968 the name refers to?  It's just bureaucratese for "riot."

>executive director,
>National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence, 1968-69; 

Innocuous organization.

>trustee, Brookings Institution; 

Innocuous organization.

>director, Council on Foreign Relations, 1977-1979."

Still no evidence that it's not an innocuous organization.

>I think this may establish just a tad closer relationship between the CFR 
>and schemes for Constitutional reorganization than President Eisenhower 
>and the Dodgers. 

I see no evidence the CFR supported this scheme, or did anything to work
towards it.

>You should be aware that allegations of causality which
>suggest a CAUSAL MECHANISM are not legitimately dissmissed as though their
>only support were correlation and time sequence. The suggested mechanism 
>may be IMPLAUSIBLE, but the responsible critic should not dismiss it as though
>it had not been suggested. He or she should properly attempt to SHOW that it 
>is implausible.

I've already done so.  
-- 
ted frank                     | thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637